Whether he would have stopped or whether the onslaught of stones which let loose, clipping his shoulder as they thundered down, were what saved Locke's life, only John would know. They struck hard enough to buffet him sideways, and he released his opponent, allowing the Spartan-IV to crumple into the dirt at his feet.
"John!" Briar grasped his arm as she reached them, but cursed at the condition of the man on the ground. She bent and hooked her fingers inside the titanium plating covering Locke's shoulders, determined to drag him to safety despite the literal knife he'd driven into her back. If he died as a result of the altercation with John- she couldn't let that happen. Whatever fury or contempt were coursing hot through John's veins right now would cool and be replaced by guilt.
Stones pelted their armor and the dust suspended in the air from all of the falling debris made navigating the crumbling chamber onerous. To make matters worse, she was battling lightheadedness and her vision was beginning to blur. The intelligent gel-layer of her bodysuit had altered its density to apply pressure to her wound, which was largely preventing her from bleeding out, but it could do nothing for the internal damage.
Locke groaned as he was hauled across the dirt. It was impossible to guess the extent of his injuries, but he hadn't bothered insisting he could move under his own power.
Buck, Vale, and Tanaka swept in and Briar let go, having no remorse for the way the ONI operative's upper body thunked down when she did so. "We have to go, we have to go now." All around them, the cavern was collapsing.
John didn't resist, fortunately. Turning, he left Osiris to deal with their incapacitated leader as he followed her the remainder of the distance to the mouth of the tunnel Kamber and Palmer waited inside.
The Spartan-IV fireteam wasn't far behind, with Buck toting Locke over his shoulder.
"Dr. Halsey won't be pleased about the artifact," the AI spoke up for the first time since Briar had retrieved it from the control pillar, catching her off guard.
"Tough," she replied tersely, staying tight on John's six as Palmer took the lead down the aqueduct. Halsey had bigger concerns if her suspicions about the older woman's arm were correct. Besides which, Lasky had been adamant that their mission was to deactivate the Forerunner device, not recover it. Removing the ancient tech from the Sangheili homeworld without their knowledge or permission would have set off a shitstorm.
"It's not a weapon. Those pulses - they should have been harmless. Dr. Phillips appeared to have thrown off the calibration."
Briar grimaced. As though Halsey needed more to bolster her ego. "What are you saying?"
"It's a beacon. The pulses were a signal."
"Infinity to Fireteam Mythos, how do you copy?" sounded through her comms suddenly.
"Solid copy, Infinity," Palmer was quick to answer as they rushed through the passage.
The fact they'd been able to reestablish contact made Briar hopeful Infinity hadn't suffered any major issues as a result of their time offline and adrift in orbit.
"Awaiting your sitrep, Mythos."
As Palmer rattled off the relevant details, Briar dismissed the heart rate warning from her HUD.
"Lieutenant, with these vitals, loss of consciousness is eminent." The AI highlighted her dangerously low blood pressure readings, which she also dismissed.
They were nearing a juncture, and Palmer jogged down the adjoining passage with confidence. She and John had found an alternate route to the chamber, so Briar was content to follow in their wake and throw all of her concentration into not passing out.
Tanaka trotted along behind her, but she judged the Spartan-IV smart enough not to try anything in the enclosed space - not after witnessing the wrath John had directed towards their team leader. A grudging sort of truce seemed to have been established, at least for the time being.
A few turns later and light filtered down from the hole they'd blown to infil. Kamber leapt up first as Palmer stepped aside to wait for the rest of them.
Briar waited for John to follow him, but when her turn came, fatigue and pain caused her to miscalculate her jump. She threw her arms out to grab the edge, which broke away beneath her weight, forcing her to scramble for purchase on the loose rocks, her legs kicking uselessly in the air. Her peripherals blackened as a wave of vertigo washed over her.
John's helmet appeared a moment before he seized her arm. He heaved her up to solid ground, started to release her, then thought better of it when she staggered. "You're injured," he said, the first words he'd spoken to her since the power had failed in the corridor on Infinity. It was more an accusation than a conclusion.
"Something like that." There was no point denying it. She tried to push away from him as the others appeared one by one, but his arm encircled her torso, hand latching onto the armor beneath her armpit to offer her stability. Aggrieved, but too weary to protest, she allowed it.
Incessant bleating was the first environmental stimulus to accost her senses upon regaining consciousness.
"...coming out of anesthesia," someone complained.
"Then administer more," came the curt response. "It's a swamp in here, I'm still looking for the bleeder."
"Vitals are deteriorating."
"Start another transfusion."
Everything felt numb and she couldn't be certain if her eyes were open and she simply could not see, or whether they remained closed.
"Pushing more sedative."
"Keep that vat-kidney on standby, if I can't get this hemorrhage under control soon-"
The sentence wasn't completed, but neither did it need to be.
She slipped back under.
She didn't know what to expect from death, but the nasty chemical aroma of sterilizing agent which filled her nostrils seemed to hint at a different fate.
"Briar."
That voice. John's voice.
Eyelids flickering, she managed to convince them to open long enough to take in the blurry figure looming above. She tried to speak, swallowed, then tried again. "I might see where you're coming from with the whole name thing," she eventually rasped.
His features weren't distinguishable owing to her unfocused gaze, but he lifted his hand towards her face, his fingers brushing her jaw very carefully.
She closed her eyes for a moment to summon the energy to reassure him she was fine. Before she could, she heard the sounds of others entering the room.
John's hand left her cheek as he stepped back. "What's her status?" he questioned of whoever it was.
"As long as the new organ isn't rejected, she should be back on her feet in a day or two."
Briar struggled to reopen her eyes. Fingers were prodding her. Fingers that definitely did not belong to John.
"What's that?" It was a demand this time, his tone laced with suspicion.
"Just some more sedatives. Better to keep her out until we know one way or the other about the kidney." She had to give it to the guy misfortunate enough to have been assigned her as a patient, he sounded only mildly terrified of the Spartan-II no doubt staring him down.
But she didn't want to be put back under. Her eyes were no longer cooperating, nor the rest of her body, it seemed. "John…" she slurred, or thought she did.
Then there was nothing.
Voices mumbled nearby when she next woke. The words were muffled, as though her ears had been stuffed full of cotton balls.
Some piece of monitoring equipment chirped an alert to her stirring state. The conversation broke off, and someone approached.
They'd put lubricating gel in her eyes to protect them and she had to blink furiously to attempt to clear her vision of the filmy, clouded quality it created. A shadowed presence once again stood vigil at her bedside. "John," she said, the name past her lips before her sluggish brain had a chance to catch up with her senses, which were already telling her something was off. Whoever it was, wasn't substantial enough to be Spartan.
"...notify me when the drugs started to wear off," Lasky was telling her as her hearing finally adjusted.
"Why?" With everything that had transpired lately, she could well imagine the captain had his hands full. So what was he doing checking up on her?
Lasky shot a meaningful look to the other man in the room - her doctor, she presumed - and they were left alone. "Because I thought it'd be best if I was the one to tell you the Chief's in the brig," he supplied, his tone contrite but his expression resolute.
Briar digested this in silence.
He waited for a response, but when none was forthcoming, he went on. "After Commander Palmer and Warrant Officer Kamber were debriefed, along with Fireteam Osiris-"
Her throat felt raw from whatever tubes they'd shoved down it, but that didn't stop the outrage which was brewing inside her from spewing out. "I'm about thirty seconds from earning myself a spot in the brig, Sir, so if what you're trying to tell me is that John put his life on the line again for this ship, for you, and you're going to take their word over-"
"Over what? He didn't deny any of it," Lasky interrupted her, pinching the bridge of his nose as though battling a headache, which he likely was. "I gave him the opportunity, and he didn't deny a thing. Jameson Locke's got a fractured skull and intracranial swelling."
Her eyes narrowed menacingly. "He stuck a knife in me."
"I know - I understand, trust me. And until I can verify his orders, he's under guard as well."
"Until you can verify whether he's got the green light to kill me?" Briar repeated for clarification as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
Lasky's sigh was full of turmoil. "Buck, Tanaka, and Vale are on the record as having no knowledge of that objective." He looked for a moment as though he might suggest she lay back down, but paced away from the bed instead.
"If you tell me you were expecting anything else, I'm going to know I was wrong about you, Captain." Wrong to put her faith in him.
"Sar- Commander Palmer believes them."
"Locke had no reason to make that claim if it wasn't true. ONI was never planning to arrest me." She could see it when he turned back - he'd wanted to keep on believing the lie, even after the recording she'd given him of everything. "John trusted you," she bit it out as though betraying that trust was the worst transgression imaginable. And it was. What was nearly as bad was that she'd allowed John's faith in Lasky to temper her own better judgement.
He visibly flinched at the condemnation before his back straightened. "I'm making arrangements to get you off-"
"I won't go without him."
"-to get you both off of the ship," he finished. "In case I'm not able to sort this out before they send someone else." To take care of her, was what he meant, but didn't say.
Briar was far from appeased. "Why lock him up if you're going to cut us loose?"
"Honestly?" Lasky swallowed. "Because when I asked him about what happened, about what he'd done to Locke - he wasn't the Master Chief anymore. The look that came over him - he was more like a... vengeful god. And he wasn't remorseful about it." He shook his head slowly. "I thought- I hoped it would be safer for all involved if he was contained."
Having heard enough, she kicked away the sheet covering her from the waist down.
"You're not cleared to be up yet," he protested as she slid off the bed to the angry beeps of the medical equipment.
Her back twinged a complaint at her upright posture, but Briar simply began plucking off the various wireless electrodes plastered to her skin, which resulted in further and angrier beeping.
The door to the room slid open, her doctor lingering there instead of entering either because of or in spite of the scene before him.
"I want clothes and then I want you to take me to him." Dropping the last electrode to the floor, she fixed her gaze on Lasky. "Sir."