Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine

chapter 37: missing in action

November 10, 2552

location: the ark, near truth's citadel

Linda had found a large cliff several meters down in the fog where Kyle could have landed. She set the pelican down and Fred had Will stay with their dropship just in case there was still flood activity in the vicinity. Kelly took point as they searched along the cliff. The fog at this level was thick so they switched to IR vision to try and cut through it, but they still didn't find his body.

"We should go" said Fred.

"it hasn't even been forty-five minutes" said Kelly. "We keep searching. What if he fell deeper?"

"That still doesn't change the fact, Kelly" said Fred, "he's dead and the odds of us recovering his body are slim to none".

"We have to try" Kelly growled, obviously pissed at Fred.

"Kelly, I've indulged you for long enough" said Fred. "We need to go".

"then you go" said Kelly, "I'm still going to search".

"Kelly, this is borderline insubordination" Fred started. "You're not thinking clearly. This is just an emotional response all the hormones in your system".

"Leave me alone, Fred!" Kelly said as she tried to walk off but Fred grabbed her by the arm.

"What would Kyle think of you right now!?" Fred yelled. "He wouldn't have wanted you to put both your lives in jeopardy".

"Both?" Linda asked.

"she's pregnant" Fred told her, "it's Kyle's".

"Then we keep searching" Linda said in Kelly's defense.

"Do I have to order you both back?" said Fred. But he accepted that this was an uphill battle. "Fine we'll keep looking".

"Hey, guys" Will said over the COM, "you better get back here".

Kelly reluctantly followed Fred and Linda back to the pelican. Will was in the cockpit and Fred and Linda squeezed inside, leaving no room for Kelly who just stood outside and listen in, lost in thought.

"I picked this up on the E band" said Will, "its very faint".

"lets hear it" said Fred.

A series of beeps sounded through the ship's speakers, four long beeps followed by a short one... a pause... then a short beep followed four long ones.

"I don't get it" said Linda.

"its Morse code" said Will, "the first sequence is a nine and second is a one".

"what did you say?" said Kelly.

"ninety-one" Fred muttered.

"its him!" Kelly screamed, "he's alive!"

"calm down" Fred said, "we don't know for sure". He turned to Will, "did you trace the signal?" he asked.

"its coming from there" Will said as he pointed out of the window, even through all the fog they could see what he was pointing at, the wreckage of High Charity.

November 10, 2552

location: somewhere inside High Charity

If Kyle could feel his gut it would have turned cold. He couldn't feel anything at all, not his arms or his legs. Kyle was suddenly reminded of the book the flood, specifically Captain Keyes and his torture at the hands of a proto-gravemind. Kyle felt pure fear for the first time in a while, "he's doing the same thing to me" Kyle thought, but that could only mean he was being turned into a combat form, or fused with the gravemind himself. Kyle started to really panic, but his fears were replaced with doubt. Keyes was loosing all his memories when the flood probed him, but Kyle could still remember everything. There was no attempt on his mind... good. He used this time to try and sure up his mental defenses, "how the hell are you supposed to defend against the flood?" Kyle thought. "look where it got Keyes". Suddenly a booming voice sounded in Kyle's head.

"You hide something, like the construct. But no matter hard she tries she will be broken in the end, like you".

"Never" Kyle replied.

"foolish attempts at free will" said gravemind. "I witnessed the prophet's final moments and he feared you for what you said, what you know. Soon we will exist together, two corpses in one grave and then I shall know everything".

November 10, 2552

location: pelican dropship en route to High Charity

"hang on" Kelly said from the helm of the pelican as she punched the engines to full.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Fred screamed from the seat behind her.

"Making an LZ" Kelly replied as the dropship slammed through the weakened hull of High Charity and landed on the edge of a cliff in the structure.

"See, nothing to it" Kelly said as she grabbed her M90, laser and exited the pelican. She shook her boots for a second to try and get the flood mass she stepped in off of them. Practically every surface was covered in flood tissue and in the next chamber they could see these weird bulges, that moved as if something was inside them.

"The signal's coming from down there" said Linda as she pointed over the cliff. Below them was the main dome of high charity, where the dreadnought used to rest. They could see the remains of a UNSC frigate in one of the collapsed towers, most likely the in amber clad. Linda overlayed a NAV marker on the exact source of the more code signal, an odd cylindrical shaped structure that was tipping to one side, all but one of the bridges that led to it were down and there was discharges of raw electricity on its surface. Will came out of the dropship with rope and grappling guns and began to fix rappel lines to the side of the cliff.

"We're going to help you get him back" Linda said, "so don't even think about telling us to stay".

"Wasn't planning on it" Kelly replied when truthfully she was just about to. Fred and Will rappelled down first followed by Kelly and Linda. It was a several click hike over the ruins of High Charity's main chamber but they finally arrived at the only bridge to the squat cylinder. It was barely holding on and it was twisted at an odd angle.

"Come on" said Kelly as she began to walk across the tilted bridge as fast as she could. Fred, Linda and Will were barely able to catch up.

"Please be ok" Kelly thought.

--

The first attack finally came. Even though Kyle still couldn't feel his body the gravemind was able to induce excruciating pain. The pain was the most intense he'd ever felt, worse than when he was stabbed by an energy sword.

"Submit!" the gravemind yelled.

"Kiss... my.... ass" Kyle defiantly replied.

"Like your forefathers, you resist" said gravemind, "and like them you are simply flesh and bone and stubborn will which soon you will be BROKEN OF!"

The pain grew more intense and Kyle couldn't bear it any longer, he felt himself start to give in to the coming darkness, but suddenly the pain ceased. Gravemind allowed Kyle to see through a combat form eyes. It was stalking three Spartans crossing a bridge and entering a structure.

"No, not them, not her" Kyle thought. He closed his eyes and repeated those words, he wanted to warn them away but he couldn't speak. When he opened his eyes though he found himself in an open field at night. He was able to feel his body and his MJOLNIR armor.

"Tough spot you're in" said a voice from next to him. Kyle looked over and came face to face with his younger self, wearing the same clothes as on that faithful day.

"You could say that" Kyle replied when he realized this was just his subconscious conjuring up something.

"Who'd a thought that we would end up like this?" his younger self said. "A Spartan I mean?"

Kyle started thinking back to his simple life before he left his universe behind, how he always used to wonder if he had a purpose in his world. For a moment he felt like the teenager he was all those years ago. His Spartan training seemed to melt away as the teenager he was pushed back through. A mixture of old emotions flooded back, he wanted to be home in Virginia with his family, he didn't want to be a Spartan anymore.

"Oh don't you start quitting on me" said younger Kyle.

Kyle wondered how he found out but then remembered that it was technically himself. "I don't want this anymore" Kyle screamed at his younger self, "don't you get it, I'm just some kid living in a fantasy world".

Suddenly his younger self smacked Kyle across the side of his helmet, Kyle was able to feel it and winced in pain.

"Remember when you were passed out after you were stabbed" younger Kyle explained, "how you thought you were home and it was all a dream. What really got you through it?"

"I don't know" Kyle replied, too emotional to think clearly.

"Kelly, stupid" young Kyle said, "is she just part of your fantasy world? For crying out loud she's a flesh and blood person who loves you. Fred, John, Linda, Will, they're real people now, people who care about you and are risking their lives to save you, and you don't even care? You just want to go run away and go home".

"Leave me alone" Kyle croaked as he turned away but his younger self just reappeared in front of him.

"Look at yourself, you're not me anymore" he said to Kyle. "You can never be me, you're an adult who has a purpose now, not to mention someone who loves you. So you have a future, I mean you really do. You can't give up".

"I'm going to die here" Kyle said "that thing is turning me into a fucking flood!"

"Then you take that bastard down with you, find a way" said young Kyle. "Shit, we've got company".

Suddenly Kyle's younger self dissolved as well as the field around them. It was replaced by the black void Kyle was held in earlier.

"They try desperately to rescue you" said gravemind, "but they will fail and will join us in our grave".

--

Kelly entered the structure first and waited for Fred, Linda and Will to arrive. They entered the structure which had flood tissue on practically every surface.

"This way" said Linda, "the signal is getting stronger".

The main chamber stretched almost the entire height of the cylinder, there was a central column covered in flood tissue and more of the bulges, but one thing drew their attention. A figure in MJOLNIR armor sticking out of the flood mass.

"No, no, no" Kelly thought as she ran over to him followed by the others. She dropped her M90 and grabbed hold of him. Fred came over and cut part of him loose from the flood tissue, his legs were still inside the flood mass but the front of his body slid forward. Fred dropped his knife at what he was seeing.

"Kelly, let go, now" Fred said in a serious tone.

Kelly let him go and was about to look behind him but Fred grabbed her and tried to pull her away. Kelly wrestled past him and gasped at what she was looking at. A tentacle of some kind was protruding from the flood mass, and had broken the seal on the back of his neck. It was firmly entrenched inside his body. Flood tissue was also growing off the tentacle and onto the outside of the armor, covering the AI port.

"His vitals are barely registering" said Fred. "Its safe to say... this isn't Kyle anymore".

"No!" said Kelly "he's still alive. We just need to cut him loose and Halsey can reverse the damage".

"Kelly!" Fred yelled pointing to the tentacle in the back of his head, "That thing is embedded in his spine. If I pull it out it will probably kill him. The flood has probably destroyed his mind already, he's not in there".

Kelly was forced to accept the fact that Kyle was as good as dead. So she picked up her M90, pumped the slide and loaded a shell into the chamber. Then pointed it at Kyle's head.

"Don't hesitate to fire" she remembered Kyle telling her "trust me you'll be doing them a favor". Her hands started to shake on the trigger multiplied by the MJOLNIR armor the whole shotgun started to tremble in her shaking hands.

"I can't!" she screamed as she lowered the shotgun.

"I'll do it" said Linda as she stepped forward and leveled her rifle at his helmet. "Just look away" she said to Kelly.

"D-d-don't" a voice said over their COM channel, a female one.

--

The gravemind resumed his attacks against Kyle, excruciating pain came in increasing waves. Kyle screamed as each one hit. "Just kill me already" he thought.

"You will suffer" said gravemind, "watch".

Another view through the eyes of a combat formed appeared, it was of Fred and the others trying to defend against an horde of combat forms. Carriers jumped down and exploded next to Will, sending him across the room. Infected brutes descended on him and shot him repeatedly with captured needlers until there were only pieces of him left. Linda paused and dropped her rifle upon seeing Will brutally killed. Suddenly, her chest exploded as a flood Juggernaut impaled her through the back with one of its appendages. It pulled it out and Linda collapsed. Fred turned over for a second an ultimately met his end as infected elites diced him with captured plasma swords. Kelly fought on but was incapacitated by an infection form that droved its penetrator through her armor. She collapsed and Kyle watched in horror as it burrowed inside. After a few minutes her arm began to twitch and she gave off a flood howl. Her armor began to break off as flood tissue asserted itself and her whole right arm exploded into a mass of tentacles. Kyle was emptied of all feeling.

"They have submitted to fate as will you" said gravemind.

Kyle was quickly filled with rage and began to lash out at gravemind as it tried to probe his mind. He felt his presence start to weaken slightly.

"That's your weakness" Kyle cried out an evil voice filled with rage and grief. "Then come get some". He dragged out every angry memory he could find, the day he yelled at his father over something entirely pointless, 9/11, after Sam was killed and Kyle's grief aboard the commonwealth, Shelia, his devastation on Reach. He threw them all at gravemind. All the raw rage was too much for gravemind and Kyle could feel his presence diminish to nothing. Kyle had been exhausted and he finally began to cry over what he'd seen. The gravemind quickly returned with a wave of intense pain. Kyle felt it enter his mind once again, but it was too weak to absorb all of Kyle's essence. It instead targeted one thing, Kyle's memories of Halo 3.

"Now at last I see, her secret is revealed!" gravemind yelled as he puled out, leaving a mentally and emotionally battered Kyle to cry.

"I've lost everything" he yelled, "just kill me!"

Suddenly, a bright light appeared that resoled into a giant line of code. A slender yellow arm emerged from the line, hand outstretched to Kyle. Kyle took it and was pulled inside the mysterious code. He found himself in some kind of virtual world comprised of lines of code and standing in front of him was a life sized Kalmiya.

"How?" Kyle asked.

"I compressed my program and withdrew into your neural lace when that thing tried to access my programing" said Kalmiya. "I've been essentially sharing part of your brain. But I've pulled you into where I reside".

"They're dead" Kyle croaked as he collapsed into Kalmiya's arms, "they died trying to save me".

"They aren't dead" Kalmiya said, "the gravemind fooled you to try and weaken you more, but it looks like his plan backfired and you damaged him somewhat. Kelly, Fred and the others are right here with your physical body".

Suddenly a holo display appeared before Kalmiya and she let go of Kyle and began scrutinizing it. It displayed a schematic of Kyle's armor and a green bar on the side was filling up.

"Hang on" Kalmiya said to him. "I'm sending you back... and it's going to hurt".

The bar reached maximum and Kalmiya nodded to the screen. Suddenly, Kyle was yanked away from his neural lace and he felt immeasurable pain as his whole body felt like it was being electrocuted. The world turned back for Kyle.

--

Linda relaxed the grip on her sniper rifle. There was a flash of light from the back of Kyle's head as raw power flashed across the surface of the flood tentacle. It pulled out of Kyle's armor and the flood tissue on the back of his helmet died and fell off. The flood mass around Kyle's leg retreated and his whole body fell forward and he landed face down in front of Linda. Kelly knelt down and flipped Kyle over, grabbed his helmet with both hands, but hesitated before twisting it off. She looked away as she pulled the helmet off, expecting to see his face mangled and twisted into one of a combat form. But when she finally looked at him his face hadn't been touched by the flood, nor the rest of him. There was a gash on the side of his neck where the penetrator dove in but he appeared to be free of infection. Kelly removed her first aid kit, cleaned, and treated his wound, then slapped a bandage over it. Kyle started to stir and his eyes slowly creaked open. His blue eyes were bloodshot. Kelly didn't wast any time as she pulled he helmet off and pressed her lips to Kyle's. Kyle was suddenly jolted fully awake by Kelly' kiss which was hard and passionate. When she finally broke away Kyle sat up.

"Wow" he said. "I should get capture more often".

Kelly laughed a little at his joke but quickly broke down in tears, tears of joy that is. Kyle held her close.

"I thought they got you" Kelly whispered to him.

"they didn't" Kyle replied, "that gravemind tortured me but... oh". Kyle had suddenly remembered he got all of his memories of Halo 3.

Kyle looked over and saw Linda and Will were pointing their weapons into the air and slowly backing away. Kyle looked up and saw gravemind himself hanging over them. Kelly passed Kyle her spartan laser and he quickly reattached is helmet and pointed the laser at him. But before he could activate it his HUD picked up multiple contacts surrounding them. He looked around and suddenly he realized through all the flood mass where they were.

"We need to leave" said Kyle, "this is the Mausoleum of The Arbiter".

"Like a crypt?" Linda asked.

"For all the dead Arbiters" said Kyle.

Suddenly the covers on the caskets starting breaking off and flood elites exited each one, each of the previous Arbiters were now combat forms.

"You shall suffer!" gravemind roared, "I know what your are planning for the ring above us". He began to pull out of the mausoleum through a hole in its roof. Kyle wasn't able to get his laser charged in time. Fred tossed Kyle his sidearm and they began to lay down a suppression fire against the rapidly growing Arbiter army.

Kyle glanced at the charge indicator for the laser and it read 100. He opened the power pack housing and activated the fail safe systems. Kyle wasn't too happy about destroying his favorite weapon but they didn't have any heavy explosives with them, and they needed a big bang. He tossed the laser at the arbiters and they all made a break for the exit. The laser detonated but only eliminated a small fraction of the Arbiters. The reached the bridge and noticed the energy cascades along the surface of the mausoleum had grown more intense. They had to slow their pace to get over the bridge due to the odd angle it was at. The flood Arbiters didn't slow their pace and may of them fell of the bridge and into the abyss trying to chase after the Spartans. They crossed the bridge and turned back to see small explosions caused by the increasing cascades tip the mausoleum over. The bridge was torn away and fell with the rest of the structure.

"At least the arbiters are finally at peace" Kyle said to himself. There were similar cascades along the entire inner surface of the dome followed by explosions small and large. Kyle knew what this meant and he had Fred pick up the pace a little. When they arrived at the side of the cliff they found their ropes coiled at the bottom. Fred examined them and found evidence they were burned off their pitons. Thankfully Will still had their grappling guns and he shot three lines up to where they left the pelican and quickly scaled their way up, but when they got to the top all that was there was a few scorch marks in the flood tissue.

"Someone took the pelican" said Fred.

Kyle went into the next chamber and noticed the weird looking staircase and came up with a startling revelation.

"Don't tell me that your pelican was 'that' pelican?" Kyle said to Fred.

"What are you talking about?" Fred asked.

"The Chief and The Arbiter stole your ride" Kyle said. "not to mention rigged the reactors to blow".

"We're trapped" said Kelly, fear started to rip her chest. Her unborn child would never know the world, she didn't even get the chance to tell Kyle.

"Wait I've got it!" Kyle screamed, "its crazy but it just might work".

He led the team through the passage on the right and had Will shoot his grappling lines through the hole in the ceiling. The quickly scaled the hole and Kyle had them follow him up the broken structure until they found the two banshees the Chief and The Arbiter used to get inside. There were actually two extra.

"Must have been those two elites you get in co-op" Kyle thought to himself.

"How did you know these were here?" Linda asked.

"No time" said Kyle as he got in the nearest one, Kelly squeezed in the seat behind Kyle. The others got in their banshees and Kyle led the formation out of High Charity.

"Kalmiya, can these things get us into space?" Kyle asked.

"negative" Kalmiya replied, "their engines can operate in space but they don't have enough power to escape the gravity well".

"Then we need a boost" said Kyle as he pointed his banshee at High Charity.

"Kyle, are you insane?" Kelly said from behind him.

"Probably" said Kyle. "This plan is risky".

"Kyle, what the hell are you doing?" Fred asked over the COM. "That place is going to blow".

"exactly" said Kyle. "You remember when we went surfing on Sigma Octanus four?" he asked Kelly.

"You've got to be kidding me" said Kelly.

"I agree" said Fred. "you two had a titanium-A crate, we've got banshees".

"No time" said Kyle, "just plot your banshees on a course similar to mine... and hang on for the ride of your life".

Kyle watched as he got three acknowledgment lights from the others and in his peripheral vision he could see the other three banshees flying along side.

"Listen, Kyle, I have to tell you something" Kelly started.

"Save it" Kyle replied, "we're going to get out of here".

"This is a little important" Kelly replied.

"I've calculated the time remaining before the reactors reach critical mass" said Kalmiya, "go to full speed on my mark".

"Ready" said Kyle.

"mark" said Kalmiya.

Kyle hit the throttle and flew straight High Charity to build up as much speed as possible. The four banshees skimmed along the surface of the station as explosions grew lager as they rippled across the surface.

"Pull up now" Kalmiya said.

Kyle pulled back hard on the controls and the four banshees arced upward.

"Brace yourselves" said Kalmiya.

There was a slight defining followed by a loud roar as the reactors reached critical and High Charity was vaporized. An intense pressure wave slammed into the banshees and the clouds around them seemed to evaporate as the shock wave reached the stratosphere. Kyle cut his engines and coasted in the shock wave. The sky gradually turned dark blue and stars started to appear. The temperature dropped and his suit's internal oxygen kicked in. Kyle activated his engines and pushed the banshee the rest of the way.

"Everyone ok?" he asked over the COM.

"that was intense" Will said over the COM. Fred and Linda checked in and reported they were right behind Kyle.

"You ok?" Kyle asked Kelly.

"Fine" she replied.

"what exactly were you going to tell me earlier?" Kyle asked.

"that I loved you" Kelly lied, "I thought we were going to die", she didn't want to tell him yet.

"Where to?" Fred asked.

"Halo" Kyle replied as he pointed his flyer in the direction of the ring.