Sorry about this chapter being a little late and short. Took a little trip and I probably won't upload another chapter until sometime next week. As always, feel free to comment/criticize and tell me what you think. Shadow #1 editor. Have a good one.

Nomad was overwhelmingly exuberant today. Not only had he secured a position on the baseball team yesterday, his brother had become an internet sensation overnight. Apparently someone had recorded the young soldier suplexing the black bear named Kenta. The video was then uploaded to Zootube and it spread like a wildfire. Luckily the original video started when the bear back pawed the wolverine into the wall, painting Damon as a type of hero. Kenta was a very aggressive Third Year who frequently tried to pick fights, so most people were excited to see him put in his place.

"Oh! Oh! Check this one out!" Nomad was showing the 701 group all the different types of edits animals had made. The jovial soldier had swapped seats with his brother today and was sitting next to Collot. Everyone was laughing at Kenta getting dropped over and over again. Well, everyone except Damon who was going to have to see the headmaster after his last class today. He rested his forehead on the palm of his hand.

"Hey Durham, wanna try wrestling Damon. Bet we could take him together." Collot said jokingly.

"Are you kidding me? I've got a whole season of pitching ahead of me! I'd rather not spend it being dead!" The two laughed at the prospect of taking on the Spartan.

Ana had smiled upon seeing the first few videos, but it had quickly begun to bore her. She still felt antsy due to the lackluster smoothers. Just three more days until restock. Her attention was pointed mostly at her meal which she robotically ate. She looked to her right to see the wolf staring at his own food and not eating it.

"If you're trying to use telekinesis, I heard holding the sides of your head and grunting helps." Ana smiled at her joke as her fingers glided across her tacpad's screen. She found herself also abandoning her meal.

Legosi, broken from his food induced trance, turned to the pale girl. "What?"

Moron. She exhaled out of her nose and shook her head. "Nothing."

The rest of the day went by in a flash. The Gamma students were already caught up to their regular First Year classes and were in the process of planning make-up exams with their teachers. Most of the material was simple recap. The only classes they were really interested in were Seaspeak 101 and Intro to Sociology. That's where the new information was.

Nomad and Ana wished Damon good luck as the last class ended. The medic traipsed to the front office. He passed through the second set of double doors. The first set were for the smaller breeds of animals, the top of them not even reaching his knee. Most of the room was beige and dull except for some art of the school made by students past. Chairs lined the walls in the dead spaces between the various administrative offices. The whole plan was to stay out of here. Well, guess this is it for my school career. 2 days. New record. He gave a smile to the elderly Emperor Penguin behind the front desk.

She returned the smile. "Damon I presume? Headmaster Gon is in his office."

"Thank you ma'am." The Spartan continued down the way until he saw the door to the Tiger's office.

The space for the principal was far larger than any other he'd seen along the way. Cleaning his glasses with a white towelette, the feline looked up and gave a warm grin to the newcomer upon his entrance. One of the first things Damon made note of was the Tiger's trio of scars on his left eye. He's been in a scrap too before. The medic turned to find Kenta and his cronies on one side of the room and the wolverine on the other. The bear was glaring daggers at him and rubbing the back of his neck. Damon opted for a chair next to the smaller beast. Enemy of my enemies.

Gon set his half rimmed glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "Thank you for joining us Mr. Damon. To begin, I would just like to apologize for the actions of your senior students. They forced you into a situation in which you felt that you needed to act violently in order to secure a better resolution. I know that you were acting with good intentions."

Well that certainly was a better reaction than what I was planning for. "It's no problem sir."

"Oh but it is, and I want to get to the bottom of it starting with you Mr. Kenta." The big cat's eyes rested on the nervous ursa. "Just what was so important that you found it necessary to backpaw Mr. Jushin into a wall?"

Jushin huh? Guess you bit off a little more than you could chew.

"Well… see… he owed me money and wasn't paying for it." The black bear's intimidating aura from yesterday had disappeared. It was replaced by what equated to a scared kid in Damon's mind.

The tiger grew sterner with the response. "Are you the leader of a gang here on school grounds? Do you three collect money through violence for a living?"

The trio shook and hung their heads.

"I thought not. As punishment, all three of you will be helping our janitorial staff after class for the next two weeks. You'll meet in the maintenance room next to the cafeteria. If any of you are absent, or if I receive complaints, I will not hesitate to suspend all of you. You're dismissed."

The despondent group stood and exited the room. Adíos suckers. Damon really wanted to crack a smile, but kept a stoic expression.

Once the door closed Gon faced Jushin. "How much do you owe them?"

The wolverine twiddled his claws, not wanting to make eye contact with the headmaster. "5000 Yen, and I don't have it."

The Tiger sighed and pulled out his wallet, pulling out his wallet. He fished a few bills out and handed them to the animal across the way. "My car needs cleaning. I'll give you the keys to the garage this weekend."

Jushin reluctantly took the money. "Thank you sir."

Gon shook his head. "No need to thank me. This is an exchange of goods for a service. Can't just be giving money away left and right. Do a good job and keep your head up. You're dismissed."

The student nodded and left.

"How do they handle discipline in the UNSC?" The Tiger had already turned his attention to his computer. Work never ended for the headmaster of Cherryton.

"100 pushups, three mile sprint, or a close quarters combat demonstration with a drill instructor." Damon remembered his brother being tossed a few times during training thanks to his witty commentary. Even had his shoulder dislocated by an overzealous DI. That guy ended up having to answer to Tom-B292. Needless to say it didn't end well.

Gon got a laugh from that. "The student body would certainly be a lot stronger if that was the way we handled things around here. Although, I don't think tougher rulebreakers would really help the situation." He clicked a few times on the Gamma students' profiles. "I'm glad to see you're already participating in an extracurricular activity. Gardening Club. Must be peaceful."

Damon slightly narrowed his eyes. "Yes sir, I suppose it is." How much did he know about them?

The headmaster kept his eyes on his computer. A notification popped up. "I'm sorry Mr. Damon, but we'll have to continue this conversation at a later time. You're dismissed."

The Spartan got up, gathered his belongings, and went on his way. I need to talk to Tina this weekend.

Yafya woke up to a smoldering afternoon sun. For a moment he thought it had only been a few hours. Upon checking the date however, he found that he'd been asleep for more than a day. Guess I have been pushing pretty hard this past week.

He walked out of his bedroom into his garden area and a strong smell of iron wafted into his nose. His carrots had been recently maintained. Looking toward the hallway elevator, he saw Tina in only her bodysuit. Her hands were behind her back and she was admiring an eagle statue.

She listened to the clopping of the horse's footsteps. "You're finally awake."

"Why didn't you wake me?" Yafya's question was even toned.

"You needed the rest." She hadn't taken her eyes off the eagle, like she was making sure it didn't move. "Don't worry. James was out there."

The stallion had yet to really interact with the heavy. He was wondering where he'd been. "How was his patrol?"

"He's not patrolling." Tina finally turned to him. "Follow me."

The Commander gave Yafya a full briefing on James' findings in the underground room. He was unphased by the brutal photographs. Decades of dealing with the Black Market had left him desensitized to such matters. "So he'll handle kidnappings and we'll be taking care of gang activities… makes things simpler. Speaking of the gangs, any updates?"

Tina was looking through the underground monitor. "Not a peep. Unlawful ventures have gone dark. The Shishigumi haven't left their mansion to collect tributes, Dokugumi are consolidating their people in their corner of the market, a few Inarigumi are searching for their lost girls, and nobody even saw a panther yesterday."

Yafya smiled upon hearing how shaken the groups were. "I'm glad to hear it." The horse's stomach rumbled and betrayed his hunger. A day without eating will do that. He turned it into an opportunity. "Mind joining me for dinner?"

"Sounds like you need it more than I do. Why not?" She turned the monitor off and followed her ally to the elevator.

On the way up Tina leaned against the metal wall and closed her eyes. Yafya couldn't help but stare at her caramel hair and sun-kissed skin. Humans were definitely a beautiful species if the one behind him was simply selected at random.

After preparing a full meal, Yafya took his seat across from the Spartan. She was already a halfway through a new bottle of red wine. He placed a plate of rice cakes and carrots before her.

"Thank you." Her black hand moved to her fork without the hesitation of waiting for him to sit. She was decisive, always committing to something fully even if it was wrong. A truly natural leader.

"You're welcome." The horse began eating after pouring himself a glass of water. He was dehydrated after sleeping for so long. After a long drink he looked up to Tina and caught her eyes.

The commander swallowed a mouthful of carrots and furrowed her brows with a smile. The stallion swore he could see a blush. Must be the wine. "What is it?"

"I just realized that you must know everything about me, yet, I know next to nothing about you."

"How much do you want to know?"

"Everything." Too eager. "Whatever you can."

The Spartan took her glass and downed it like she had when they first met. She licked her lips to make sure none of the garnet colored alcohol went to waste. "I am Tina-B306, the B stands for Bravo Company. I was born on the planet Jericho VII. My family ran a farm near a beautiful green ocean. If it's quiet, I can sometimes hear the waves coming to shore." She closed her eyes to listen but couldn't hear the water. "The animals we had aren't like the ones here. They're pure instinct and don't possess self-awareness. They just live."

Yafya thought about how simple those beasts must be. How that might shape one's view of their society.

"We trained racing horses for shows at the larger spaceports. A few months before the Covenant arrived, my father brought one of the yearlings to me. He named him DeMarco. He said 'they're only as nervous as you are. Have faith in him and he'll have faith in you.' I spent all the time I could with him." Tina's smile widened as she drew parallels between the foal and the Beastar before her. "One night, I snuck out and opened the gate to let him out. Using some rope, I made a lead and walked into the countryside. With him I wasn't scared of the night and he wasn't either. I walked for who knows how long before I actually turned around. That's when the heavens parted and a strange, purple shape came floating down. It was a few kilometers long. I was little and had no idea I was looking at a Covenant Heavy Cruiser. They were deploying troops on my home's beach. A roaming Marine squad saw the whole thing, scooped me up, and took me to the nearest evacuating ship."

She wandered her hand to the bottle and skipped the glass this time, choosing to wrap her lips around the circular opening. "Of course, I never saw my parents or Demarco again. I put myself to sleep at night trying to believe that he ran off to somewhere safe, but I wake up knowing he's probably a black smudge in a field of glass that goes on for as far as the eye can see."

Yafya… didn't know how to respond to that. Tina's smile had never left her face. She stood with the wine in hand and walked over to him. The figure of the soldier was intimidating to say the least. At two meters tall, she towered over him normally. While he was sitting and vulnerable, his instincts screamed to stand and match the approaching creature. Her dark fingers reached down into his mane. The strands parted around every digit in her stroke.

"Thanks for the meal." Tina turned, made her way to the elevator, and left the horse alone with his thoughts.