Author's note: Well…another long update. I would have had this out earlier but then I got the Halo 3 Beta early and, yeah, you could probably guess where I spent my time. But, I finished it now, so enjoy!

This is the Way the World Ends

Boss slowly opened his eyes and instantly felt his head throbbing as if someone was knocking on the inside of his skull. He sat up with difficulty and briefly wondered where he was when it instantly dawned on him, and he realized the Chief was nowhere near him. Boss scrambled to his feet and looked around for him, not seeing him at first. He then saw him lying unconscious on the ground helmet-less; it must have been thrown off in the crash.

"Chief!" Boss called, running over to kneel beside him. As he did so, the Chief groaned and started sitting up. "Are you alright?" Boss asked.

The Chief shook his head a couple of times before answering, "Yeah, I'm fine, though I hit my head pretty hard." Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Boss saw a bright blue ball of light and turned to see a Wraith mortar hit twenty feet away from them. The two of them shielded their heads as pieces of rock and rubble rained down on them.

"We've got to go," said the Chief, getting up with renewed vigor, "If those Wraiths can reach us, then that means they're close." The Chief placed his helmet back on and turned towards the oncoming mortars - Boss followed suit. He realized that the Chief was right; it looked as if the Covenant tanks were just beyond the next rise. Suddenly, Boss heard the whoosh of a plasma mortar and looking up, saw it was right above them.

"Move!" The Chief yelled, running forward with Boss right behind him. They were able to dodge it, but now Wraith mortars were raining down all around them. One exploded a few feet away from the Chief and though he stumbled a bit, he kept running. Soon, they arrived at the cliff edge and the two of them jumped without hesitating, landing on the ground twelve feet below. Boss saw that they were right at the edge of a battle between brutes and Marines. The Marines were on the losing side as they were greatly outnumbered, but they kept fighting despite the odds against them. Boss was about to rush forward to help them when the Chief grabbed his arm.

"Wait," he said and pointed toward the other side of the battlefield. Boss saw a few Wraiths prowling around the outside, occasionally firing a ball of plasma out onto the field the Chief and Boss had just jumped from. "We need to take those Wraiths out. You go right, and I'll go left."

Boss remembered the Chief didn't have a rocket launcher, "How are you going to take them out?" The Chief's answer was to pull out a frag grenade, tossing it up into the air, and then running into the fight. That doesn't answer anything, Boss thought as he ran to the right, trying to stay on the outer edges of the fight. He didn't want to get involved just yet, not until he had finished taking out those Wraiths, especially since there seemed to be a lot of Brutes around.

As he approached the far side, he saw one of the Wraiths strafing back and forth, occasionally firing shots. Boss held the rocket launcher steady and when it got a lock on the Wraith, he fired. The rocket impacted on right side, blowing a part of the armor off, but it was still operational as it turned towards the origin of the rocket. Boss quickly fired again and watched as the rocket propelled towards the same spot, impacting on the now unprotected side, destroying the cockpit with a bright blue flash of light. As he reloaded he felt a small bit of triumph until another Wraith came to see what had happened to its comrade. Boss hadn't finished reloading so he tried to find cover, but the Wraith had already seen him. The Wraith came for him, and if it fired a shot he'd be finished.

Out of the corner of his eye, Boss saw a flash of green and watched in amazement as the Chief ran forward and jumped onto the Wraith. He pulled back his right hand and formed a fist, driving it into the top hatch, denting it. The Chief then gripped the small opening and using his strength, ripped it open. Boss could hear the Brute pilot cry out in fury and then alarm as the Chief dropped his grenade in it and leaped clear. The Brute tried to pick up the grenade, but it was too late as the grenade went off in his hand, destroying both the Brute and the Wraith.

"Chief, you never cease to impress me," Boss called to him as he was standing up.

"Don't worry, you'll see more," he replied and then pointed to the Wraith coming towards them. Boss turned around and saw it, but now that he had finished reloading, he was able to shoot two rockets at it before it was able to get close enough to them. After he did that, the Chief ran over to him.

"We need to keep moving," he said, pulling out his battle rifle. Boss nodded, strapping the rocket launcher to his back and pulling out his own battle rifle. Together, they ran across the plains towards the Ark. Now they could see where the Covenant were digging, and Boss noticed with a jolt that it was almost uncovered. Chief must have noticed it too since he started running faster. Boss kept pace with him every step, trying to get to the Ark before the Covenant activated it. Looking up towards the sky, he saw that it was completely covered with clouds, which were spinning around a single part of the sky. It looked like a funnel cloud, though Boss knew that the Ark was located below it.

After a few minutes of running, they came to a cliff edge, which was many feet high, at least a hundred.

"Fierfek!" said Boss, looking down the side at how steep it was, "We'll have to rappel down."

"This doesn't look good for us," said the Chief, looking out over the cliff edge. As Boss looked across the dirt plains below them, he realized they weren't as empty as he had thought they were. Out a ways, a structure suddenly began to emerge from the ground, sending a shock wave directly towards their cliff. As it impacted, parts of the cliff fell away, causing the Chief and Boss to step back.

Covenant ships had begun to arrive, including phantoms, banshees, and even a Covenant cruiser, all heading towards the Ark. The Ark itself had opened, splitting at the middle and each similar piece opening up like a flower. Then, from out of nowhere, it emitted a bright flash of light that Boss had to turn away from despite his visor automatically polarizing. As he looked back, he saw that a large structure had rose into the sky, in the shape of dome. There were Covenant converging on the Ark, guarding on ground and air alike.

"This is going to be harder than expected," said the Chief, and out of the corner of Boss's eye he saw the Chief momentarily glance at him.

Under his helmet, Boss grinned, "I've always liked a challenge."

As soon as the Marine had said that Grievous was attacking, everyone had grabbed their weapons and headed for the location where Grievous had last been seen. When Fred and the others had arrived there, they saw several dead Marines but Grievous was nowhere to be seen. Fred, with his battle rifle raised to his shoulder, looked around. They were only a small ways from the entrance, which means that Grievous may have headed further into the base.

"We should split into groups," said Jusik, "We'll find him faster that way."

"Etain, Bardan, or I should come with each group," said Obi-wan, "His lightsabers will be hard to counter without a Jedi."

Fred nodded, "Blue Team, Jusik, come with me. Omega, you stay together with Etain and Gett and head towards the armory. Delta, Kal, Ordo, and Obi-wan, you head towards Commander Keyes's quarters and make sure she and the others are all right." They all nodded in agreement, and then headed off in different directions. Fred was leading his team towards the middle, as Grievous was most likely going to head there. Many questions had flashed through his mind. Why was he here, attacking them now? Was it to distract them from reaching the Ark, or to try and kill them off for good? Though as soon as the questions appeared in his head, he pushed them to the back of his mind; he couldn't answer them now.

As he made his way towards the middle, he began to hear the distant sounds of gunfire and the sound of lightsabers swinging. Though as he listened, he heard something else that sounded familiar, but couldn't figure out what it was. Over the sound of the gunfire, he heard a distant yell.

"Retreat! Fall back towards the armory!" Fred instantly recognized Commander Keyes. What was she doing out here? He put on a fresh burst of speed, leaped over several ammo crates, and arrived in a small clearing. There were more dead Marines lying on the ground along with some ODSTs. On the outside of the clearing, more Marines and ODSTs were firing at Grievous, who was standing in the middle of it all. To his surprise, he saw the Arbiter standing beside Keyes, protecting her from what was in the clearing. Fred stared in amazement as he figured out what the other noise had been. It was the sound of electrostaffs, used by the MagnaGuards. There were four of them in the clearing right now, standing around Grievous.

"More MagnaGuards?" asked Will in disbelief beside him, "I didn't think he had any more." Fred knew that his team wasn't going to be able to beat Grievous and the MagnaGuards. He turned on his COM link to contact the other two teams.

"Niner, this is Fred."

"Niner here," he replied, "Did you find him?"

"Yes, and he's got four MagnaGuards with him. Come to the middle of the base immediately, and contact Obi-wan's team."

"Copy that, we're on our way," Niner replied, and then shut off the COM link. By now, Grievous had noticed they were in the clearing and the Marines stopped shooting to watch what was going on. Fred moved forward a little bit, though he wasn't in reach of the MagnaGuard's staffs. The General let his arms fall at his side, though he still kept his lightsabers activated. All of them stood silent for a moment, just looking at each other, when suddenly Grievous began to laugh.

"You don't realize it, do you?" he asked, "You and the rest of your army have no chance of winning this war. The Covenant were always going to win, and now that Darth Vader and I are here to help them, you are helpless."

"You don't have the entire Covenant on your side anymore," Jusik retorted, "They have split up, and allied with us."

Grievous narrowed his eyes at Jusik, and Fred thought for a fearful moment he was going to lunge at the Jedi, but the droid general stayed put. Though now, he was no longer laughing, and Fred realized he hadn't known that the ex-Covenant had become their allies.

"It matters not what allies you make," Grievous replied, raising his lightsabers once more, "You will all die in the end."

Fred's mind raced, they had to delay Grievous for as long as it took for the others to arrive. They wouldn't be able fight this battle and win, but then an idea came to mind.

"Who's this Darth Vader you're talking about?" asked Fred. He noticed Jusik make a quick sidelong glance at him, and he knew that Jusik had been trying to distract him as well. Grievous turned to look at Fred, looking him up and down and sizing him up.

"You're not the original Spartan," Grievous remarked at last. "None of you are, so where is he?" Fred's heart started beating, his plan was backfiring. Once the others got here, he would notice both John and Boss were missing. He was smart enough to put two and two together, and figure out they were heading to the Ark. Would he leave to chase them down, and if he did, would he be able to head them off?

"You didn't answer my question," said Fred, quickly changing tactics. But Grievous's only response was to separate his arms and pull out another lightsaber, so now he was holding three.

"Don't take me as a fool, I won't be put off," he sneered, and from some unknown signal two of his MagnaGuards lunged at Fred's team. One locked into a fight with Jusik, while the other went to fight the Spartans. The MagnaGuard moved quickly, dodging all of their punches and kicks and retaliating with quick swings with its staff. Fred was knocked back briefly, but before he could join back into the fight, he saw that Grievous was already lunging at him. He stared in dismay; he had no time to raise his battle rifle, let alone his hands, to defend himself.

It was then that he saw a commando leap off of the ammo crates piled high to his right, fly through the air, and kick Grievous in the head, causing him to falter. Looking closer, he saw that it had been Sev, and as he watched, the rest of his team ran into the clearing to provide support.

Obi-wan immediately activated his lightsaber and rushed over to Grievous, who roared in fury and lunged at Obi-wan. Fred saw that Obi-wan could handle Grievous as he parried his blow. Fred turned his attention to the two MagnaGuards, who had leaped into the battle as their General was attacked. The Guards were hit by sniper bullets, but they seemed to be impervious to the bullets as they merely ricocheted off. Fred knew that Linda had found a hidden location.

Fred started to head over to help Sev and Scorch, who were fighting a guard all on their own. But before he could reach them, he saw the MagnaGuard swing its staff hard into Scorch's side, connecting with a loud crack. He gave a cry of pain and tried to move backwards out of the fight, but the guard followed him without mercy, swinging and catching him in the side of his head. Scorch was instantly down, trying to shake the stars out of his head as the guard advanced upon him.

But Sev was there to protect his brother in a heartbeat, grabbing the droid from behind and throwing him away with all his might. The MagnaGuard stumbled a bit, but caught its balance and readied his staff into a fighting position. Fred ran over to stand beside Sev, ready to give him support. The guard didn't hold back at all as it ran forward, swinging its staff at Fred. He ducked underneath the staff as Sev swung his fist over Fred's head, hitting the guard in the face. Fred wasted no time in kicking the MagnaGuard's legs out from underneath it, making it fall onto its back.

But it wasn't done yet as the guard, with lightning fast speed, kicked up back to its feet and hit Fred in the chest with a strong kick, sending him flying several feet back and through the pile of crates that Sev had jumped off of. When he landed, he shook his senses clear and scrambled to his feet, looking for where the MagnaGuard went. He saw that it was still in the clearing, fighting against Sev. Scorch had also rejoined the fight, though he was limping slightly.

"Fred!" He turned towards the shout and saw Etain, Gett, and Omega Squad running towards him.

"There's no time," said Fred, "Grievous and the MagnaGuards are in the clearing." He nodded towards where he had smashed through the crates and to the clearing, where Obi-wan was still fighting Grievous and everyone else fighting the MagnaGuards. None of them hesitated as they rushed around the now broken crates and into the clearing. Etain went to help Sev and Scorch fight the MagnaGuard along with Gett while Atin, Fi, and Darman went to help with the other three. Fred and Niner went around the clearing and towards the back, so now Grievous and his guards were completely surrounded on all sides.

Grievous noticed as well, and came to a decision, "I would say we will meet again, but, unfortunately, that's not going to happen." And with that, he leaped through a gap between Fi and Atin. The commandos moved out of the way and Grievous - with his MagnaGuards - passed through.

"Marines! Follow him and make sure he leaves!" yelled Miranda and the few Marines and ODSTs around her leaped into pursuit of the cyborg. Once they had left, the clearing fell into an eerie silence, confusion in the air at Grievous's last words.

"Fred, you have to go to the Ark immediately," said Miranda, jogging towards him, "Truth knows what we're doing, he sent Grievous to distract us. Chief and Boss are going to head right into a trap."

"We're ready," Fred replied, nodding in agreement, "But, how are we going to get there? If we head in on Pelicans, we'll be shot down before we can even get close."

To his surprise, Miranda smiled, "I have a way."

As the Chief looked out across the plain, he saw thousands of Covenant troops patrolling around the Ark, preventing anyone from getting close. If he and Boss rappelled down the cliff side and tried to get in on foot, they'd be shot dead. The only other option was to fly, though they had now way of doing that as they had no ship. He instantly began searching the sky, looking for any ships they could hijack. His gaze focused on a banshee, flying in circles around the Ark. He raised his battle rifle to get its attention, shooting it in the wing.

"Chief, what are you doing?!" Boss asked in surprise.

"When the banshee comes," the Chief said, ignoring his question, "grab it's attention and have it come closer to the cliff edge."

Boss sighed and moved into position, his battle rifle raised. The Chief walked as close as he could to the edge without losing balance and watched as the banshee he had shot made a U-turn and came directly towards him. As it got close Boss began firing at it with his battle rifle, causing it to turn towards him. As the banshee turned, it flew slightly parallel to the cliff edge, completely unaware that the Chief was now running towards it.

At the last second, he launched into the air and landed with a thud on the top of the banshee. He heard the brute inside roar in surprise but it didn't last long as the Chief forced open the canopy and kicked the brute in the face, crushing its skull and causing it to fell out. As it fell, he heard it roar out in pain and fear. The Chief leaped inside before the banshee followed the brute and safely landed it besides Boss.

As the Chief got out, Boss said, "Once again, Chief, you never cease to impress me."

"I'll need to get another one," he replied, "A banshee only fits one."

Boss remained silent for a moment before answering, "I'll ride on the side; I can hang on without falling off. You'll have to drive steady, though."

It was the Chief's turn to be impressed, "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Then hang on tight," he replied, climbing back into the banshee and waited for Boss to get himself positioned on the banshee's right wing, trying to make himself look as small as possible. When Boss was ready, the Chief took off from the cliff edge, trying to fly as straight as possible. The Banshee shifted slightly to the right from the weight, but he was able to keep it straight by slightly leaning to the left.

When they arrived close, another Banshee came flying at them. The Chief tensed, his hands hovering over the attack controls, but luckily the Banshee just flew past them on the left. As it flew away, he tilted the Banshee downwards, slowly heading towards the Ark. Directly around the Ark, there were fewer Covenant, only about a hundred, a combination of Brutes and Jackals.

"When we land," said the Chief through their single beam COM link, "head immediately for the door. We won't be able to take on this much Covenant and win on our own."

"Copy that," Boss replied. The Chief looked down one more time before he landed. He saw the huge door at the front, nearly three times as tall as he was and at least ten times as wide. Right now, for some reason, it remained open and the Chief didn't like it. It meant either the Covenant were so full of themselves that they thought no one could get in. Or, they were expecting them, and wanted them to come in.

The ground below them was coming at them rapidly, and at the last moment the Chief leaped out and free fell the last ten feet. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he made a mad sprint to the door. He heard Boss running behind him, and heard the surprised cries and yells of the Brutes and Jackals. By the time they recovered enough to fire, the Chief and Boss were already inside. As soon as they were in, he immediately started looking for a way to close the door, but couldn't find any.

"Fierfek, how do you close this thing!" asked Boss, looking around beside him. As if on cue, the door in front of them slid shut with a loud thud, which echoed on the walls around them. After the echo ended, everything became extremely quiet. The Chief looked around at his surroundings more closely and though everything was pitch black, in the middle about a hundred yards away there was a single pillar that was filled with light. He looked closer and saw a figure standing, no, hovering, near the pillar and he knew exactly who it was before it started talking.

"So, Demon, you were able to make it this far." He instantly recognized the voice as Truth's. The Chief began to walk towards the pillar with Boss at his side, stepping into the light. "I figured you would have stayed back at that pathetic camp of yours and died with the others."

The Chief's heart started beating quicker, "What do you mean?" But before Truth could answer, the door behind them opened and then shut. The Chief whipped around to see who it was but couldn't see them until he stepped into the light. It was Grievous, and he saw that he was holding 343 Guilty Spark in his hands. Immediately, the Chief raised his battle rifle to his shoulder and aimed at Grievous.

"Don't waste your weapons on me, Demon, you won't be able to harm me with those," Grievous scoffed and continued walking towards Truth.

"Good work, General," said Truth, "Now we'll be able to know how to activate the Ark." The Chief put the pieces together in his mind; Grievous attacked the camp and had stolen the Monitor, but what happened to the others? Grievous could have killed someone, was that what Truth meant?

"Demon, you are just in time to watch us enter the Great Journey!" called Truth, "Now, Oracle, tell me how to activate the Ark."

343 Guilty Spark had been released from Grievous and was now floating beside him, casually looking back and forth between everyone as they talked.

"Monitor, don't tell them anything!" the Chief yelled, hoping that Guilty Spark had remembered their earlier agreement. Grievous turned to glare at him and activated two of his light sabers but Truth stopped him.

"Don't kill him yet, General, he may still be of use to us," said Truth, then turned to address the Monitor again, "Now, oracle, don't listen to him. How do you activate the Ark?"

"You won't be able to activate it," replied Guilty Spark and Truth glared at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Only a Forerunner can activate the Ark," the Monitor stated, "anyone else who tries will fail. I don't see why you are so angry, there are Forerunner on Earth as we speak."

The Chief stared at Guilty Spark, how was that possible? He had never seen anything that was related to the Forerunner on Earth except for the Ark.

He saw that Truth was as surprised as he was, "That is not possible! You're lying to me!"

"I am merely answering your question," the Monitor replied simply.

Truth took a deep breath before speaking again, "It matters not, I will be able to figure out how to activate the Ark on my own and everyone on Earth will be dead in a moment except for ourselves." Truth turned to smile at the Chief and the realization hit him as if someone had punched him in the chest. The only way to kill everyone on Earth was to glass it…

"No," whispered the Chief, and turned towards the door, wondering if he had enough time to warn the others.

"There is no time left, Demon," Truth said as he noticed the Chief turn towards the door, "The glassing has begun, and there is nothing you can do about it." Even as he spoke the Chief could feel the vibrations under his feet as every water source was vaporized, fields were burnt and every living being was killed. All the work on the UNSC, of his Spartans, and of everyone from the separate universe was a waste. He and Boss were the only ground force left. There was nothing left.

An unfamiliar rage worked itself up inside the Chief, and without thinking he ran at Truth, whose smile instantly vanished and turned to fear. Grievous stepped forward to stop him, but the Chief simply jumped off from Grievous's chest, knocking him over and using the momentum to launch himself onto Truth's chair. He punch the Prophet across the face and heard Truth cry out in pain.

"Chief, look out!" Only then did the Chief come back to his senses when he heard Boss's cry and saw a flash of red as a lightsaber activated beside him. Turning towards the noise, he saw Anakin's lightsaber coming at him and felt extreme pain in his leg. The Chief cried out in pain and fell backwards off of Truth, and felt the lightsaber be removed from his leg and saw Anakin standing over him. Truth backed away, holding his face in his hands as blood seeped through a cut.

Anakin wasted no time as he raised his light saber and brought it down on the Chief. But, it never reached him as Boss ran forward and threw his shoulder in Anakin, off-balancing him. The Chief watched in horror as Anakin brought his hand up and Boss rose into the air, unable to control his actions. Then, Boss flew forward onto Anakin's light saber, which impaled him through the shoulder. The two of them didn't move for a moment, then Anakin flicked his hand and Boss flew backwards off the lightsaber and fell onto the ground, where he lay motionless.

Don't let him be dead, the Chief thought in hopelessness, it would be his fault if he died. His blind anger had led Boss to have to rescue him. As Anakin turned towards him, he looked at Boss one last time and suddenly, relief washed over him.

Boss's hand had twitched.

Author's note: The end is approaching, two more chapters left at the most, plus an Epilogue that I've already written (Yes, I realize I have an Epilogue without a Prologue, but I don't think it'll kill anyone). Updates will be faster as well since finally after months, I have gotten my laptop fixed, and I won't have to share a computer anymore. As always, please review!