So... yeah. Remember when I felt I was more myself like ish a year ago? That held onto August, and then it all came crashing down again. Long story made very short, the future I thought I would have, and the aspect of creating a family in a few years... it all was pulled away from me like someone would just pull the rug away from under an unsuspecting you.

Yeah. That was my life. So over the past few months I've literally had to dig myself out of a suicidal hole, and somehow try reconstruct an assembly of a life. I don't know where I am with it, I don't know if I'm okay or not, but at least I'm not on the verge of just wanting to jump off a cliff, even though they do still look tempting. I am so sorry that I have kept this story going on for so long. When I first posted it I thought I'd finish it within the year but I guess this is just proof of how life can just... be such a bitch sometimes.

I am back now though, I've already drafted up the coming two chapters and expect them to be out within the same month, or at least in May at the latest.

I just want to thank every single one of you, for having been here all this time, for recognizing this story way more than I thought it would. I hope I can make you all proud by me finally picking up the story again, and driving it into goal. I also want you to know that you guys are partly the reason why I want to keep going. This story has been like a pedestal.

With that said, I want to ask if any of you wish to have an idea that you might get from reading this story included? If so, just pop your idea in either a message or as a comment, and I'll do my best to twinkle the story with some of your wishes! Of course, they wouldn't happen exactly like you would describe, there's always the craft of plot twists 3.

I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: Uhm... Not sure what I think of Halo 6. Y'all, any opinions? Oh and no, still no part of 343 Industries yet. Might work in their HR-department some day, though. Wouldn't that be cool?

Chapter 28 – Unhinged Outcomes

Going down their fifth corridor, half of Blue Team had yet to find the monitor which had zoomed off over an hour ago, abandoning them to an unstable, not to mention stuttering A.I. - which had on a whim decided to destabilize the whole vicinity, leaving them floating their way through this maze of a base.

Pushing off the wall next to him, Frederic levelled with Master Chief, glancing towards the particular Spartan companion.

"Do you know what the A.I. meant with "the other one?"" Frederic questioned, hands once again pushing off another segment of wall, to keep up his momentum. The Chief followed suit with the wall beside him.

"No, but someone else was here before us. Someone who knows about the keys." The military green Spartan answered. Rather stoically, too.

"How would they know?"

A quiet moment passed by before an answer was uttered.

"Just like always, we have a mole." The Chief declared, his eyebrows crunching together under his helmet. The deep set wrinkles by his eyes told of many years of wisdom. Thoughts running around in his head, the Chief took a moment to ponder over his own statement. If there was a mole, the evidence they had collected pointed towards soldier Casey Mitchell. She had on several accounts communicated with an unknown source, mentioning sensitive information. But something within him, some kind of… feeling, twisted his gut.

For it wasn't a knife doing the twisting.

'013 would not like me accusing her friend of treason.' He thought, almost solemnly so. He could not point out what the feeling was. It was too foreign.

He pushed the train of thought away then, because currently they had to hunt an elusive monitor down - who has a lot of explaining to do. Pushing off of a beam, he used the momentum to swing around the corner of the corridor they currently were in, leading him, Frederic and Kelly to another circular room. The blue long lines of light running along the ground and walls flickered with the alarm that was blaring in the background. The hard-light bridge before them ran quite a distance to a pillar that stood tall within what seemed to be the main centre. It illuminated the whole room, and it having that amount of power, would only mean that it was one of the main batteries that kept the base running. Glancing up, the Chief noticed how there were several floors to this room, the roof above them towering over the group. Upon further scrutiny, the Chief pondered whether they'd entered an archive of sorts, the floors above having round safes stacked in rows upon rows of each other - which most likely contained… something. He didn't want to find out what, either, having enough encounters with the Flood to know that opening such foreign objects was a dangerous thing to do. Even with the amount of luck he has with him.

The team floated towards the centre, grasping onto the railing that surrounded the pillar. The steely surfaces of the whole base shone back at them with the rather ominous blue lighting that the hard-light technology was giving off. Who'd imagine blue to be the colour of… unease?

"Isn't there a map somewhere that can pinpoint where exactly we are, and where this bastard of a monitor is hiding?" Spartan-104 voiced while aligning himself upright, as if he was standing on the gridlock floor instead of floating like a horizontal piece of scrap metal.

"There is, look at this screen." Kelly called them over to the other side of the pillar, battery really. Her gloved finger pointed towards a moving dot that was showcased onto a hard-light screen that looked quite like one of those massive tourist maps at some park back on Earth.

"That was too convenient."

"I'm just using my eyes, Fred, you should try it sometime."

"Har har." Kelly shook her head at her friend, before resuming with scanning the supposedly map that was before them.

"The red dot should be the monitor, I can't see anything else that would be moving around like that." The female Spartan pressed a few buttons on the screen, attempting something. A few seconds later, the 2D-map shifted itself into a 3D-version.

"That's the monitor, alright." Frederic observed, as the moving dot had taken on the form of nothing else but Oracle 1-4-3.

"According to this map, it's in corridor 51. That's fourteen corridors away from us."

"Someone will have to stay here to communicate the monitor's movement, the other two will go after it."

"I can stay here, you two go." The blue Spartan waved at them, motioning for them to go down the east end.

"If you go through that hallway, you will be able to cut through three corridors. Now go."

"Copy that." Frederic mock-saluted her, before catching up to the Chief who'd already gone ahead, swiftly floating towards the east entrance – almost leaving his team-member behind.

They did have a lot of catching up to do, and gravity wasn't in their arsenal in this race. Frederic was on his six quick enough though, and the two manoeuvred around to gain as much momentum and speed as possible to gain in on the space between them and Oracle 1-4-3.

"Turn to your right, and take the third left." Kelly's voice came through their comlinks, steering them into the direction they had to go.

"The monitor just switched direction, it's coming towards you, ten corridors away."

"It made a right turn, you need to backtrack and take the corridor on your left."

"There should be an elevator platform near you to take you to floor 61 of the archives, it's another circular room like the one I'm in."

Spartan-and Spartan-104 soon reached the elevator platform, now currently riding on top of it to get to floor 61 as directed. The Chief's gaze remained tilted upwards, however, Frederic's was studying his leader. His gaze was stern, but worried.

"You know, Chief, there is a messy situation we need to fix once we get back, you know that, right?"

The Chief only remained quiet.

Frederic almost sighed. His leader was clamming up.

"I know you prefer talking to Kelly about these things but, listen to me, Chief. You are worse off than you have ever been. You have been my friend for forever, I'm not about to give up on you because you decide to give me the silent treatment in this."

The Chief did not move, except for the minor shifting of his helmet towards his lifelong friend. The silence kept going, and for a second, Frederic believed that he would not speak.

"Agent Vicks showed me a recording of Cortana being alive." Came his answer, finally. His voice was heavy. The teal Spartan opposite him shifted his body so that it fully faced the Chief.

"Who did it come from?"

Another moment of silence passed by, then;

"Dr. Catherine Halsey."

Frederic shook his head slowly, almost not believing what he was hearing. Something did not add up here, when he tried to piece the puzzle together.

"And how does agent Vicks know about that recording? If there is anything we know about Dr. Halsey, it is that the woman is surrounded by impenetrable safety systems. Hacking her system requires even the most elite individual, and that's pushing it."

The Chief returned to looking up, their destination nearing them rapidly. He didn't reply this time.

"We'll ask her once we get back." Frederic said in his place. The platform came to a stop, and the two Spartans pushed off of it, steering towards the west wing, where Kelly said the elusive Oracle would be hiding.

"The monitor is unmoving, now is your chance to intercept it."

The Chief pointed two fingers towards the other side of the dividing pillar, signalling that the two should split up and surround it, rather than approach it front forward.

Nearing their target, Frederic moved to the outer wall to give himself turning space when the time came to manoeuvre around the edge of the dividing ledge-pillar. He knew that the Chief would be in a similar position and matching his speed. That's simply how they worked. They just knew.

As both Spartans rapidly shot forward, rounding the corners, the monitor, unprepared, quickly glanced between them, almost seeming panicked. And as a pair of green hands grabbed onto its centre-piece, it exclaimed in surprise;

"Oh my!"

"I wasn't expecting an ambush, is there something in particular that you need?" Oracle 1-4-3 asked them, as it was pulled forward.

"You have some explaining to do about your unstable A.I.." The Chief almost growled, his irritation at the monitor showcasing itself.

"Oh, but I do believe I warned you, was there something I was unspecific about?"

"Try all of it."

"Oh my." It said again, its purple light flickering in confusion.

"Well, the A.I. that lives here has gone through a lot of different, and difficult, experimentation, done by your race." It began explaining. The Chief had yet to let go of it, holding tightly to its rim, because he did not trust that it wouldn't zoom away from them. He would not give it that opportunity again.

"For some reason, perhaps by an overload to its programming, it shattered. You could describe it as post-traumatic trauma, something soldiers like you might suffer through your lifetime. But instead of brain-waves, it alters the algorithms. Ah, how to explain this… " The monitor conveyed a gesture of being in thought, tilting sideways and glancing upwards.

"This particular A.I. has always been more inclined to affirmation. It wants to feel wanted. If its quota isn't met, or it feels like it's being, say, used, its violent tendencies are triggered, and it starts exhibiting them. You have already experienced this however, usually your species does not float."

The Chief and Frederic shared a look, before they both glanced back at the monitor.

"And how do we solve it?"

"Oh, you can't." The monitor moved downwards, looking up at them.

"And why not?" The Chief questioned, while silently wondering why the hell can't it be fixed?

"Because it needs to calm down. It's throwing a temper tantrum."

"How long does it take to calm down?"

"Oh, everything between 24 hours to three weeks, why?"

"We don't have that time. You will fix this now." With that said, the Chief, still with the monitor in tow, started to manoeuvre back to where they came from.

"Kelly, we are heading your way, what's the closest ETA?"

"If you go down the elevator platform again, make one right, second right, a third left, second left and another right, you will come out the west corridor."

The Spartans, with Oracle 1-4-3 in tow, followed Kelly's directions and soon they were back in the round circular room with the gigantic energy pillar in the middle.

"Is there a shortcut to get back to the central hub?" The Chief turned the Oracle to face him, and it nodded in reply.

"There is a tunnel that almost takes you immediately to the central chamber."

'Would have been nice to know that before.' The Chief thought silently. He was still aggravated.

Central Hub, Meridian

There was just silence echoing around them for a moment, once the Chief, Frederic and Kelly came through into the central room, monitor dragged in tow.

Until Spartan-058 uncharacteristically spoke up.

"So what now?"

Her attempts at establishing communication with either of the A.I.:s had been fruitless, which left them all contemplating what their next move should be.

"I did warn you that bringing the other A.I. in here might have been problematic." The monitor pointed out, to which all heads swivelled to it.

"It wasn't our A.I. that triggered it, it was something, someone, else." Frederic turned to the screen before him once again, his brow furrowing beneath his helmet. There was so many questions running rampant in his head – for instance, just who else could know about the ancient A.I.:s? Better yet, did this person know about the keys, and so then knew of the Guardians?

Was this person working with or against them?

… Was perhaps Linda right in suspecting agent Casey Mitchell for being the mole leaking information?

He wanted to pray that it wasn't the case, however he for starters didn't believe in any higher deity so praying would simply become redundant, and secondly, there was no such thing as coincidence. He shook his head to rid himself of his train of thought – it would get him nowhere, and it most certainly wouldn't help them with their current predicament.

"Oh, has there been another here? I was unaware of this." The Oracle sounded surprisingly genuine in its confusion. The green-armoured Spartan glanced down at said monitor, before shifting his gaze to the control screen, a new plan already forming in his head.

"Is this the closest control panel to interact with the base's systems coming from the entrance?"

"Why yes, there is only one exit to and fro." The monitor spoke in odd human English language, terms that for hundreds of years lay dormant in their use. Perhaps that was a tell-tale sign of when this base actually had humans present - It had been a long time.

"Bring up footage of this room."

The monitor, following the Spartan's demand, brought up live feed onto the control screen, which soon enough started to fill up with several small boxes, showcasing footage taken from all the cameras within the base. Shifting through the many different feeds, it brought forth the one that had been asked for. Once it had completed its action the Oracle shifted slightly, as much as it could anyway, seeing that it was still held hostage. It seemed like it was trying to mimic the humanoid action of looking towards a leader, silently asking for a new set of orders from the green-armoured Spartan. And as if on que, said Spartan spoke up once again.

"Search through the footage until you find the anomaly." The Chief voiced, his eyes fully focused on the screen.

Over the span of many minutes, the room remained quiet, everyone lost in their own thoughts while the monitor searched through the footage to find whoever this "other" was. Surprisingly, not even the talkative agent spoke up, her eyes also glued to the screen. However, it didn't mean that she wasn't plotting, for within her head, she was already planning for her next move in Operation: Catch Spartan 117's Attention.

Had another certain soldier had such an operation in her agenda, there'd for sure be a more creative name, but as it is, such an operation only befell agent Stacey Vicks.

Thus, non-existent was the skill of creative naming.

"Ah, here we have it! The intruder! How could I have missed this, oh my, oh my… He even searched through this base's data, I must see what this human could have obtained, it could have been anything! Oh my, such a grave mistake…" The monitor exclaimed, its monologue dying as it seemed to occupy itself with scanning the base's data system logs in order to find out just what kind of information was taken. Meanwhile, the footage was still playing out on the screen, and the whole of Blue Team watched on how what seemed to be a middle-aged man interacted with the A.I. that had caused them so many annoyances – such as the non-gravity situation that was still active.

"Alright… " Frederic decided to break the silence that came after watching how the other human within the footage had seemingly tortured the A.I., using some kind of unknown device that he connected to the holo-pad. It was as he'd uploaded some kind of virus, for the A.I. had… screeched.

"Now we know why the A.I. decided to play tricks on us."

Linda was the only one that offered any form of reply with a hum.

"What now?" The teal Spartan glanced towards their leader, whose gaze had yet to move from the screen. The human on the screen seemed oddly… familiar, but he couldn't pinpoint where he'd seen him before.

As if on cue, the room having become too quiet, the control panel's screen suddenly flickered, bringing everyone's attention back to the present. On the screen, the newly mentioned A.I. popped back up, its orb pulsating on the screen's surface. Soon after, their own A.I. that they had brought with them popped up as well, however its orb took form onto the holo-pad.

"Guess that solves that issue…" Frederic whispered under his breath.

"It has agreed to help us." Came the voice of their ancient A.I., to which the other one, made a humming noise of agreement.

"Y-yes. I apolo-logize for reacting-g the w-way I di-d, I am not u-sed to f-friendly behaviour o-over the –la-s-t decades, c-centuries e-even. A-and the o-other one, h-h-e was not n-nice."

The way the A.I. spoke, sounded almost childlike, while still maintaining an adult sense of vocabulary. Perhaps that spoke volumes of just how much it had suffered through, for it to be so… fractured.

"Alright, where do we go from now?" The Chief spoke up, wanting to get on with the mission. They'd spent enough time on this planet.

His stomach twisted at the thought of going back onto the ship, however.

For he might've solved the issues of the mission, but back on the Infinity he had a whole new set of issues to deal with.

He tried not to dwell too much upon it, because he had yet to process the fact that Cortana, his Cortana, was alive. And he was stuck on Meridian, a glassed planet, which also held the company of one annoying monitor and a fractured A.I. that had temper tantrums equal to that of a kid. He could be out there, looking for her instead rather than being… here.

'Just what kind of mess did I get myself into when boarding the Infinity?' Was the last flickering thought he had before the figurative train of thought left the station, travelling to the back of his mind.

"Well, there was a key you mentioned? Perhaps we start with that?" The monitor, Oracle 1-4-3, spoke up, its lens shifting between the whole team.

"Ah yes, the key location. In order to get my brethren's help, I promised one thing in return."

There was silence for a moment, before the unusually quiet ONI agent piped up;

"Oh, what did you promise him-uh, it?"

"That we bring it with us."

Another way of silence swept over the group.

"So… who wants to tell the Captain that we're planning on bringing another A.I. on-board?"

This time, not even Stacey spoke up. Stacey knew better.

Naturally, it fell onto the Chief to brief Lasky of the new turn of events, and while he communicated to their Captain over the com, the rest of the team remained in tense silence.

Once the chatter died down, the green Spartan turned his attention back to his team. He only nodded, to which his team reciprocated the nod back at him, and they all turned towards the control panel once again.

"Can we identify whoever it was that broke into the base?" The Chief left the question out in the open, for either the monitor or the A.I. could respond. I t didn't matter who, or rather, what.

"Well, before we get into that… can I ask if we can get gravity back?" The ONI-agent voiced the question that no one else felt bothered them – after all, they were used to non-gravity atmospheres, however the ONI-agent?

Not so much.

"A-ah, y-yes. Give me a s-second and I will r-restore E-earth equivalent g-gravity." The A.I. flickered away from the screen, before popping back up mere seconds later, just in time to witness the flailing of one ONI-agent while she righted herself for the sudden shift in gravity, and the elegance of four other Spartans as they easily settled their footing back onto the gridlock beneath them.

It really spoke of the difference in combat experience, the gap perhaps as wide as the Canyons on Earth.

"H-he did n-not wear a-any form of ident-tification, b-but I c-can g-give you th-the code of h-his t-torture p-program… " The A.I. paused, almost as if taking a minute to recollect.

"C-coding c-can sometimes c-contain sign-signatures, perhaps it w-will help you." It flickered across the screen once again.

"I g-gave it to my b-brethren, it w-will help y-you s-scan it for possible i-identification of the-the man. He s-seemed t-to be one of t-those… those… " It went quiet, stumbling on the words. The orb then started flashing, and a warning popped up onto the bottom of the control panel's screen. That never bode well.

"… Scientist?" Kelly asked questioningly, hoping that it would placate the A.I., and thus avoid another meltdown. They were after all talking about a sensitive topic, and the fact that it had just recently rampaged… Any attempt at keeping the fractured A.I. calm would most likely be appreciated. Besides, based on the white smock-like coat the man had been wearing, it seemed as if he was a man originating from the fields of science. She recalled that he also had carried some sort of advanced technology that could torture A.I.:s - that left little playroom to guess what other field he could possibly work in.

Engineering, perhaps…

"Y-yes! A scientist."

"What did he want with you?" Kelly kept the conversation going, seeing as no one else seemed inclined in carrying this particular conversation. She sighed internally – these types of situations with any emotion involved always fell onto her plate or Frederic's, but he was occupied enough in trying to translate said conversation to agent Stacey Vicks.

Without revealing any sensitive information about their suspicions on having a mole amidst the team, that is - or that that mole could be agent Casey Mitchell.

Thus, Frederic was left to steer away prying questions.

"H-he mentioned s-something a-bout keys... He t-tried to get the l-location o-of one b-but my r-rampage f-forced him out of my s-systems b-before he g-got too much… "

"Alright… Wait, you said keys? As in plural?"

"Y-yes, there are three c-components that you n-need to build the M-master key which gives access t-to the Domain."

"Didn't your… brethren say you only needed one key, a deadbolt key?" Kelly glanced at the A.I. perched on top of the holo-pad. Her eyebrow almost twitched at this new intel.

"Ah, I seemed to have been wrong… My knowledge of such things is fractured at best, as our Creators spread our knowledge evenly between us. My speciality lies in technology and data-mining. My brother specializes in data storage and emotions… Ah, you would call them Librarians and… psychologists? -of sorts in your language."

Kelly sighed. The A.I. hadn't thought to indulge them with that particular knowledge? Sometimes, A.I. were truly not the smartest.

"… This whole mission just keeps getting weirder and weirder… " Stacey's mutter could be heard throughout the whole room. Kelly agreed with the agent for once, and then turned her attention back to the control panel.

"So we need three deadbolt keys to build a Master key, only then can we get into the Domain?"

"That is c-correct."

"Do you know the location of all three keys?"

"Y-yes."

"Will you help us in retrieving all of them?"

There was a moment of pause.

"Y-yes, if y-you b-bring me w-with you. I do not wish to remain h-here any l-longer."

"It's been settled that you're coming with us to the ship." The Chief briefed the A.I.. Turning fully towards the screen, he let his fingers that were holding onto the monitor uncurl, essentially freeing Oracle 1-4-3 from his grip. It immediately buzzed forward, but not to escape, rather, to place itself in the centre of the group of soldiers.

"Where is the nearest key?" The green Spartan asked, his gaze locking onto the orb of the control panel.

"It-it's right h-here, actually."

"Where?"

"The M-monitor. It's a-an Oracle. A f-few of-of the monitors w-were c-created to contain the k-keys for safekeeping, t-they are n-named Oracles. I just h-have to unlock its m-memories t-that h-have been stored safely w-within them." The A.I. flickered across the screen.

"W-would you m-mind… ?" The A.I. trailed off, however, the Chief picked up on the unspoken question.

He turned slightly towards the agent then, reaching out his hand towards her. His expression was expectant; however, hers reflected the opposite. A look of confusion twisted her facial futures. Soon though, her face lit up in a smile and she put her hand in his, thinking he wanted her closer to him.

That wasn't the case, but the Chief simply pulled the agent closer to anyway, before grasping the dog-tag that was hanging around her neck. She was the only one that had worn it on the outside of her armour, which made it the quickest way to extract the A.I..

The agent was feeling extremely giddy, her ecstatic facial expression a telltale sign of her glee. Not only had he reached out to her, he'd grasped her hand and pulled her closer!

And that wasn't even the best part, the best part was the fact that he'd skimmed his hand, albeit gloved, to which she sighed discontentedly, over her chest. If that wasn't a hidden sign for something, then she didn't know what it was. Her plan was working, she was becoming all the more alluring to the Chief. Perhaps soon, he'd finally ditch the measly 013-soldier.

'Hah, take that, you little thief.'

While her thoughts were running in such a direction, the Chief's was running in the complete opposite. He was unsure what had the agent looking so thrilled, and a look of confusion passed over his futures.

'Her smile isn't the same like 013's.'

He froze temporarily at the sudden thought. To him, it felt like the world had momentarily stopped, but to the outside world he'd barely flinched. Unknowingly, his Spartan team-members had picked up on the odd behaviour from their leader, and they glanced at each other.

They silently wondered what was going on with the Chief.

'Why did I compare 013 to agent Vicks?' The Chief inhaled a deep breath, his mind once again starting up the train of thought that he thought he'd buried earlier. Apparently, his brain wasn't having it, and it irked him. A lot.

He kept getting more and more questions that didn't have answers.

And he loathed not having any answers. Especially to so many questions that just seemed to pile up, endlessly so.

Extracting the A.I. and transferring it to the monitor, Oracle, the A.I. was quick to get to work. Soon enough, a hidden compartment on the right-hand side of the monitor hissed, before opening and revealing the deadbolt key.

The key they had spent weeks trying to find.

The same key which they needed two more of.

The Chief reached into the compartment and pulled out the key. It looked eerily like one of the halo activation indexes, except this one seemed to only be a skeleton structure of one. There were indentions in it which the Spartan only assumed was where the other two pieces would connect in to.

Storing away the deadbolt key, he pulled the dog-tag away from the monitor, and then turned towards the exit of the base.

"Let's get out of here, I have had enough of this place."

Time Skip -

Least to say, bringing another ancient A.I. on-board the Infinity didn't have Lasky cheering, but he figured it was the least they could do. After all, it was either one more crazy A.I., or genocide.

It was almost aneasy choice.

At least they now knew the location of the other two keys, which meant the mission would go smoother from here. One was in the Zeta Doradus system, which when the Spartans were told, brought grim memories to the forefront of their minds.

They had been in that system before.

They would never forget the battle of Onyx.

The third key was, ironically, located in the Nomos system.

Which is also where Genesis happened to be.

Lasky was quick to draw up a plan for the Blue Team – he'd managed to get the clear from HIGHCOM to engage the Infinity to travel with the excuse of Covenant activity, which made their mission easier.

They no longer had to smuggle off Blue Team under false pretences, but could instead operate in the open while keeping their mission secret at the same time.

At least Fate wasn't working entirely against them.

They were looking at a month travel, at the most.

Which left Blue Team to work on their own secret mission, and for one green-armoured Spartan all the time in the world to fix his issues.

First however, he had to confront agent Stacey Vicks on how she knew that Cortana was alive.

Oh, and now he was also given time to actually let the fact that his Cortana was alive.

She wasn't lost.

Which meant he could still save her.

The guilt of leaving her at the Mantle's Approach however, suddenly hit him hard in the gut, almost as hard as if getting flung by a Hunter's punch. Which also was why, after their debriefing, he headed straight to the hangar to get out of his armour before succumbing to the warmth of a hot shower spray, leaving him to decompress his thoughts.

It didn't help that his head was still spinning around a certain 013, and why she's been so present within his mind as of late.

There was also the tiny, little fact that he left her with his dogtag.

He had silently told her to hold onto them until he came back.

Now he's back, and the thought of reclaiming them felt… off. Wrong.

He wanted her to wear them.

More specifically, he wanted her to wear his dogtag.

He didn't know why the thought of them hanging around her neck, was such a comfortable thought.

Meanwhile...

The remaining members of Blue Team did the same and freshened up. As some time had passed by and the Chief had yet to show up in the hangar, the other three Spartans discussed their next step. It was approximately four weeks before they would arrive to the Zeta Doradus system, which left them with plenty of time to further investigate into their own private matters.

Such as the message the Chief had been shown by agent Stacey Vicks about Cortana being alive. Not to mention the message's sender; Dr. Catherine Halsey.

On top of that, they had to continue looking into the suspicious activity of agent Casey Mitchell.

It seemed they had their work cut out for them.

Frederic hauled a hand through his wet hair, heaving a deep breath.

"Do you ever think it was a mistake that we decided to stay on the Infinity?"

The two female Spartans glanced thoughtfully towards him for a while. Then, they slowly shook their heads.

"No. It has been a lot of weird things going on but I don't regret staying. I haven't felt this much at home since Reach."

Linda only nodded in agreement, while Frederic reclined against the storage containers that were behind him.

"Do you?" Kelly flipped the question back at him.

He paused, eyes staring up into the ceiling, replaying all the moments from them landing on the Infinity to, well, now.

He hummed.

There was no denying that he too had felt more at home here than he had felt in a long, long time.

"No, no I don't."

Next chapter you can bet your ass will have some e.