Finally, another chapter. Apologies for the long wait, as well as the short chapter. Work last week was intense, and then I had a family thing for the 4th, and then some personal stuff happened and I couldn't get any writing done. That's more a reason why it took so long, and not why the chapter is so short though, that's because I thought the next scene might be better off in the next chapter (which should hopefully be back to full length).
Anyways, on with the story.
Part I
The Lost Child
January 3, 2545 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system
The low hum of a ventilation fan was Ruby's only company as she sat alone in Camp Currahee's Armory. The building was the same as all the others: boring concrete walls, smooth concrete floors, and a hardly noticeable high ceiling. The Armory itself consisted of a section dedicated to storing all the resident Spartan's weaponry, as well as additional arms and ammunition that might be necessary for any scenario, and a workshop for the different technicians to work on said weaponry, or the more technologically inclined Spartans, as Ruby was.
"Aww! Dang It!" Ruby cursed, or, as close to cursing as Ruby would ever get. She had, for what must have been the hundredth time, dropped her mini screwdriver, meant for the more complex devices often found in the UNSC's arsenal. She had just finished adjusting the sensors in the scope of her rifle, Artemis, and, like she always did, was having trouble getting the stupid case back on.
After a minute of fumbling with the scope's tiny screws, she finally got it back into place. It should have only taken thirty seconds, but Ruby wasn't so precise with her fingers that she could manage it. She was a Spartan, not a surgeon.
With the scope reassembled, she reattached it to the top of Artemis, and spent the next half hour recalibrating it to the rifle. A simple laser pointer was inserted into the barrel, and the scope's reticle was aligned with the location of the laser pointer from a distance away. It took so long because she had to adjust for the rifle's bullet drop that would be present at longer distances. The first few times she had done this it had taken almost an hour. She was thankful she had since gotten more familiar with her baby. Working on it had almost become second nature to her.
Satisfied with the scope's recalibration, she placed it on the metal workbench in front of her, and inspected it's paintjob with intense scrutiny. The red that covered the majority of the Sniper's body was, for the most part, intact. There were a few nicks here and there, but they were hardly noticeable to anyone but her. She wouldn't need to repaint it for a while. That still didn't stop her from marveling at her work for longer than she needed to. It still amazed her to this day she could make something as beautiful as this.
When she started to drool over her rifle, she heard the door into the workshop slide open. Revealing a figure in familiar fatigues, wearing an equally familiar blank expression.
"Oh, hi, Zwei! Whatcha up to?" Ruby said as she rubbed her thumb over a dent in the stock she hadn't noticed before.
"I was just wondering where you were. Guess how many places I had to look before I found you." He strode over to her table near the back of the room, and sat down, opposite her.
"A billion places?"
"One." He said. Ruby giggled at that. Am I really that predictable?
"So, what crazy thing are you adding onto your weapon this time?" Zwei asked. His eyes roved over Artemis as he tried to determine what was new.
"Well, I did some maintenance on the scope, as well as adding a few extra little features I thought would be helpful." She pointed to a new module on top of the scope. "See this here? That's a thermal imaging camera. If I press this button it can toggle on and off, and since it works through the scope, I can maintain the scope's range and accuracy when it's on. No one will be able to hide from me with this bad boy." She gently patted the barrel with affection.
"That'll be really helpful, actually." Zwei said. She could see the gears in his head turning as he no doubt thought of all the tactical advantages and maneuvers that could be done with an advanced thermal like hers.
"I'll need your help for the next modification, if you don't mind. It won't be too hard, I just need you to hold the parts in place while I fasten them to the barrel." She said as she reached into a box set on the corner of the table.
"And what might that be?" Zwei asked.
"A bayonet." Ruby lifted a large, half meter long knife along with the mechanism to attach and detach the knife from the barrel.
"What will you need a bayonet on a Sniper Rifle for?" Zwei's face was blank as he spoke. After knowing her this long, she would be surprised to find Zwei surprised by anything she did regarding her weaponry.
"For when the bad guys get a little too close. There ain't nothing wrong with a little stabby stabby." She said as she produced the rest of the parts from the box and set them aside.
"That was a double negative, and "ain't" isn't a word." Ruby rolled her eyes.
"I know, and I don't care. Enough chatter, let's get to work." Only a few moments of silence followed as Ruby read the directions on the box. She had an idea of how she wanted this thing to be attached to her baby, but she wanted to make sure she didn't miss any better ideas that the engineers that designed this thing might have come up with. In the end, she had the same plan as the people who made this did, and so connecting it would be a cake walk.
Zwei was an excellent parts stand. He could sit still for several long minutes while Ruby painstakingly screwed in each screw without making a fuss. She made sure to thank him the whole time. So much so that Zwei went from long sentences of appreciation to short hums of acknowledgement. Eventually Ruby did it just to annoy him. His icy glares were what told Ruby her attempts at bugging him were working.
"And there! All done. Thanks again, Zwei. I really appreciate the help." Ruby said as took a step back to view her handiwork.
"Like I said, it was no problem." Zwei did the same. Coming to stand right next to her to get the same view she did.
"Why did you name it Artemis, anyway?" Zwei said after a short pause. Ruby puckered her lips in thought as she formulated her answer.
"Well. The Greek goddess, Artemis, was a huntress often shown with a bow and arrow. She had a lot of respect for nature, and took pride in her and her followers being pure. I think, of all the gods of ancient Greece, she is the one I would look up to the most. Plus, Artemis is a pretty cool name. I bet if I was in ancient Greece, Artemis would be begging me to join her little troop." Ruby said the last part with a grin.
"I'm sure she would. I'm surprised you don't start calling yourself Artemis with that inflated ego of yours." Zwei said, a joking smile on his face.
"Hey, It's only inflated if it outshines your own ability. As you can so plainly see, I am the best. Therefore, it's not inflated. It's perfectly proportional to the rest of my abilities." Ruby said as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Whatever you say, oh Goddess of the hunt." It was Zwei's turn to roll his eyes.
"Be careful. I might just get used to that." She said as she poked at his shoulder.
"If you're so good, then why didn't you take out the rest of the base on our last mission." Zwei turned his head to look up at her with a challenging expression.
"Oh my gosh, don't even get me started on that bologna. Ugh! The way that mission ended infuriates me! Not once in our training history has the immersion of the mission been broken to test us on whether or not we'll be 'tricked by the enemy'. That's so stupid! It would be different, too, if it was actually an enemy, and not our freaking training instructor! Ugh! Now I'm mad." She crossed her arms as she shook her head. Her shoulder length hair, unusually out of it's bun, flung side to side. A thought in the back of her mind told her she would need to get it cut soon.
"Come on, Ruby. We got further in that mission than any other team in Beta Company. Mendez said so himself."
"And we could have gotten so much further if that stunt hadn't been pulled. Sure, we'll know better next time, but now whenever an exercise might actually need to end, we'll keep on fighting thinking it's another test. This whole thing just doesn't really seem like a good idea." She pushed her hair behind her ear.
"I thought it was pretty clever. We won't be able to be tested like that again. I think it's a good lesson in staying on your toes during a mission. You never know what's going to happen in the chaos of battle." He said after he returned to his seat opposite hers.
"There are better ways to convey that lesson than the way they did it."
"There are, but they're not as fun as what happened."
"Why do you think it's fun when you were knocked out immediately after?"
"Simple, I didn't have to deal with the consequences after the trap was sprung like you did. Thanks for that, by the way." What he said should have been positive and appreciative, but the way he said it only made it sound like he was teasing her.
"Jerk. I didn't have fun at all." She sat down with a huff. She rested her chin on the dirty table, uncaring of how grimy she would get, her hands were bad enough already, she needed to let him know how upset she was about this whole ordeal with her body as well as her words.
The ticking clock on the wall near the door chimed just as she settled into her seat. Ambrose was strange like that; he loved his analogue clocks, and had them installed everywhere he could. She had asked him about it once, and had the pleasure of a half-hour long conversation on the history and cultural significance of analogue clocks. Something she had found rather fascinating herself, due to the way he talked about it.
"Looks like it's time for dinner." Zwei said, his back was turned to her as he read the clock.
"About time. I'm starving." She shot to her feet, gathered her things, and shoved them haphazardly in her locker. Cleaning it was a job for Future Ruby; Present Ruby was hungry.
The walk to the mess hall was spent lightly chatting about what they might be about to eat. After a short debate, they soon came to the conclusion that, whatever it was, it wouldn't taste very good. Just another day at the office, as Mendez often said under his breath when he thought no one would hear him.
It was thus a surprise when the two entered the cafeteria and were hit with the delicious aroma of a variety of meats, vegetables, and breads. The line to the serving stations stretched around the entire length of the room, and ended at the door where Ruby and Zwei were standing. Zwei asked what the deal was to the Spartan stood in front of them, a rather short girl who could have, at best, been half their sizes. Ruby saw her fatigues read B091; she didn't recognize them.
"Oh, well, SCPO Mendez said we would be getting a special treat tonight for our graduation. And, because we won't be getting any food tomorrow morning, since the augmentation procedure's start that day." The girl said. After a short thank you from both of them the girl smiled, and turned back towards the line.
They stood in silence as they waited. Ruby bounced on her feet in boredom. Her movements made a strange picture for anyone passing by: several tall, stoic, special forces members stood stock still in a line while the tallest girl in the back restlessly jumped around like a little school girl. She might have been a trained killing machine, but she was also twelve years old, give her a break.
Despite the length of the line, they didn't have to wait long to get their food and find a seat. It helped that everyone in the line had as much experience in said line as they did. Beta Company, eight years after its formation, were now dining hall experts.
They sat down more gently than usual. This has to be the first time I've ever had food this good in this dining hall. This even beats their strawberries. The way Zwei reflected her actions suggested he felt the same way.
Ruby hummed in delight as she took the first bite of her slice of turkey. Her mouth was invaded with the delicious bird, along with hints of different herbs, and even a little bit of lemon.
She didn't look up from her plate as she wolfed down her meal in record time. It was a welcome break from the nutrient slob they had normally been fed. She didn't think she would forget this moment any time soon.
"So, these augmentations, huh?" Zwei spoke from the other side of the table, he had finished his meal almost as quickly as Ruby.
"Yeah, these augmentations, huh." Ruby repeated his words with a slight grin on her face. "What about them?"
"I don't know how I feel about them." Zwei said.
"What's not to like? We become faster, stronger, and technically smarter. All things considered, I think they're pretty great." She said as she idly rubbed her belly. She didn't know this for sure, but she swore she read somewhere that rubbing a full belly helped it digest better. That might've been a dream, actually.
"It just seems unnatural to me, you know? Like we weren't intended to undergo these changes so quickly." He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.
"What? You think it's cheating or something? From what I've read, the war with the Covenant isn't going very well. We need all the cheats we can get." She didn't have any direct reason to hate the Covenant, she hated the Insurrection more than anything ever since they killed her mother, but from the horror stories she had heard from Kat back when they were still friends, as well as the constant updates they received from Deep Winter every time something major happened, she too garnered a seething dislike for the genocidal aliens. She hadn't understood it for the longest time. But, after what she had learned here, she now grasped the situation clearly.
"I guess that's a good reason for them. Still, I can't shake this uneasy feeling I get whenever I think of them. I feel like something's going to go wrong." He gestured to his stomach, as if showing her where the feeling was.
"Didn't you listen to Ambrose when he told us about it? This procedure has a one hundred percent survival rate. There is nothing that can go wrong." Ruby placed her hand on top of his in an attempt to comfort him. The way his shoulders deflated let her know the attempt succeeded.
"Alright, I'll take your word for it. But, I have these feelings all the time whenever we go on missions, and they aren't often proven incorrect." He said. The beginning of a small smile could be seen on his face. Her touch must have been more relieving for him than she had originally thought.
"I know about these feelings you get. You tell me about them every time you get them. But, trust the process on this one. I think everything will be right as rain. And if not, then I'll let you win on our next spar. Deal?" She shoved her hand in his face. Most people would have seen it as rude, but the full blown grin proved to her that he knew she was doing it for his own emotional benefit.
"You'll let me win just like all our other spars? Sounds good to me." He said as he shook her hand with his own.
"Hey! I win some every now and then. Heck, I won the spar we had last night!" She shot her hand back to her side as soon as he released it. Her consoling mood now replaced with a burning sense of competitiveness.
"Yeah, and how many did I win before that?" One of his eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead as he spoke. The fact he was now so animated filled Ruby with a sense of relief of her own, a warm sensation at the bottom of her stomach that she wished would never go away.
"Like, five. But that doesn't mean I can't let you win some." Ruby said, getting more defensive by the second.
They both laughed as the familiar hum of the cafeteria resounded around them. Each and every Spartan was now looking forward to the augmentations that would finally cement them as true Spartans.
January 6, 2545 (Military Calendar) / Interstellar Space, aboard the UNSC Hopeful
In an empty region of human controlled space, the UNSC Hopeful floated through the abyss, housing thousands of patients and medical personnel. The war with the Covenant has made more than its fair share of broken soldiers, and the ones who were the most battered ended up here.
A hospital ship is no ordinary ship. Along with the usual technical systems and typical operational and maintenance demands, a hospital ship also had to run a complex infrastructure of medical equipment and machinery, as well as store important medicines and sterile surgical tools. All these requirements made the UNSC Hopeful a particularly complicated vessel. One that no human could understand on their own.
Deep Winter was no human. He was an artificial intelligence, or, a fragment of the artificial intelligence.
His current objective was to observe and document the progress of the three hundred Spartan IIIs of Beta Company as they underwent their augmentations. Several decks, as well as an entire boarding cluster, were cordoned off from the normal staff of the Hopeful by the Office of Naval Intelligence in order for the procedure to be completed with just the right amount of secrecy that ONI desired. It was also his job to make sure no snooping AIs or ship personnel wound up where they weren't supposed to.
In order to complete his tasks, he was given permission to survey the entire ship throughout the week-long procedure. Every single medical monitoring device, all the patients' medical records, and every operating system that makes a ship a ship. Navigational data, engine status, defense systems, the records of the permanent and temporary crew, anything and everything that was the UNSC Hopeful was being monitored, analyzed, and documented by Deep Winter throughout the entire week.
Every second, huge stores of information were processed by the AI. Fortunately, it wasn't something he was unfamiliar with. All his life, he has had control over every technical aspect of Camp Currahee, as well as the surrounding, more than classified, research facilities. He liked to keep those to himself whenever he chatted with any of the Spartans III candidates, or other camp staff. Every so often, he wondered what it would take for a human to understand even a tenth of the info moving through his proverbial brain every second.
Now wasn't the time for pondering the inefficiencies of flesh. Now, his Spartans were in the midst of their toughest challenge yet: augmentation.
Three hundred simultaneous data streams flowed through him as he monitored every microsecond of time while the augmentations were taking place. For Deep Winter, the time it took for a single injection was equivalent to an eternity. His sheer processing speed created a perception of time thousands of times faster than any normal human.
That made him invaluable in monitoring the procedure. Should anything go wrong, Deep Winter would notice, react, and resolve any problems in any of the Spartans before it was even noticed to anyone but him. He found it oddly amusing that one of the Spartans could show early signs of a heart attack, Deep Winter would notice and give them drugs to prevent that heart attack, and he would continue his conversation with Ambrose as if nothing had happened at all.
Currently, the Spartans were about halfway through the augmentation process. For three days, they have been sedated. They were completely unaware, but for the last seventy two hours, they were poked and prodded by complex machinery. Slowly, especially for Deep Winter, their bodies were being sculpted into the next evolution of humanity.
Their bones have been strengthened, their muscle mass has increased, now, all that was left was to increase their cognitive and ocular processes. In the next few days, each person in Beta Company would be a one in a million soldier, who would be invaluable in the UNSC's campaign against the Covenant.
Deep Winter's focus on the Spartans remained as it was when he heard the voice of Lieutenant Commander Ambrose in one of the Hopeful's observation decks. He could have had conversations with the entire population of the hospital ship, and still concentrate fully on each of the Spartans and their augmentations.
"You called, sir?" Deep Winter said. His usual visage of an old man clad in thick winter clothing surrounded by a flurry of snowflakes appeared on the table next to Ambrose. His 'hologram' representation was projected from the myriad sensors built into the ceiling.
"Yes, anything new with the Spartans?" Ambrose said in between sips of his mug. Despite being up for much longer than any human should be, his commanding image was only slightly ruined by a light five o'clock shadow.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, sir. Each and every Spartan has taken to the augmentations swimmingly, just as planned." He gestured to the rows and rows of Spartans lying unconscious on operating tables.
"That's good. Fill me in on anything that goes wrong." Ambrose nodded to him as he shifted his eyes from the Spartans to him.
"Will do, sir- oh?" Deep Winter paused. Something was going wrong.
A millisecond of investigation proved that two hundred ninety nine Spartans were successfully sedated. None experienced any pain, they felt no discomfort, they shouldn't even have the brain function to dream. All was well and according to plan for the majority of the candidates; all except for one.
Spartan B419 was clearly having issues. Deep Winter focused his attention onto her and the machines reading her vitals and administering the chemicals. Currently, 88947-OP24, or the retina-inversion stabilizer, was being injected into her bloodstream. It would increase the sharpness of her vision, and allow for increased clarity in low-light environments.
"Oh dear." Deep Winter said out loud. Ambrose glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What is it?" He said.
"Hold on a moment." Deep Winter ran a series of in depth diagnostics on B419.
"It seems that Spartan Ruby-B419 is rejecting 88947-OP24. It appears she is having a stroke." The AI said. Ambrose's face twisted with alarm.
"What? How could that be? This procedure is supposed to be safe." His mug hit a nearby table with rushed force as he made his way towards the door.
"It is safe. It is an unfortunate truth in medicine that some people will simply reject a certain drug, regardless of how safe it may be." Deep Winter's voice came through the PA system as Ambrose made his way to the operating room housing Ruby. He had sufficient control of the system to only project his voice on the speakers nearest to Ambrose; luckily, no one else had to hear of their unusual problem.
"What can you do to help her?" Ambrose asked.
"Anything and everything that can be done, I am doing. An IV has just been given to her, the clotting should be decreasing now." Deep Winter said. Ambrose barged through the door leading into the room. The two ONI guards outside paid him no mind.
"What does this mean for her procedure?" Ambrose asked as he approached Ruby. She was unmoving on a medical table, wearing nothing but a set of clean white underwear, allowing for the automated machines the best access to her body.
"She should be fine. This event was foreseen during the planning stages of the project, as such the thrombolytic should be able to do its job without interfering with the other drugs." Deep Winter was taking continuous data regarding her vitals regardless of whether she should be okay or not. He didn't want to leave anything up to chance. No one would die on his watch.
"Give me an update." Ambrose ordered after he watched Ruby for a few seconds, looking for any signs of consciousness. Her face was morphed into a visage of discomfort, and he could see her hands clenched to her sides.
"Sir, the blood clot in her brain is currently receding. The thrombolytic was administered before the stroke could do any major damage. The bleeding should stop in a few minutes, and afterwards, her procedure should return to normal. Although it is unclear at the moment what side effects she may experience from the stroke." As soon as Deep Winter finished speaking, a strange red glow seemed to envelope Ruby's fingers and slowly spread up her arms.
"What is this, Deep Winter? What's going on?" He said.
"I'm not sure. All scans indicate everything is fine. Whatever this is, sir, we've never seen it before."
"Is it harmful? Is it causing her pain?" Her face, which once only suggested a mild pain, was now a glaring symbol of suffering. Her arms and legs shook at her side, creating a jittering noise as they slammed against the bed's braces.
Before long, the red glow covered her entire body. Ambrose tried to touch her, tried to comfort her, to ease the pain, but something wouldn't let him. His hands stopped as if they had struck a wall before they even got close to Ruby. Ambrose's forehead scrunched in perplexity as he pushed against the red glow. Nothing was working.
All the while this was happening, Deep Winter continued scanning her for any harmful agents that might cause her to flat line. What was seconds for Ambrose, was equivalent to years for him as he explored every conceivable possibility that might explain what was going on with B419. He came up with nothing.
Just as Ambrose was about to remove Ruby from the table entirely, the red glow dimmed until it faded away entirely. Her once turmoiled expression was now soothed into a blissful slumber similar to the rest of the Spartans. The Lieutenant commander took a step back, his eyes shot to Deep Winter's projection next to him, the question clear on his face.
"Well, sir, I've no idea what happened. But, whatever it was, it seemed to have healed the brain clot entirely." Deep Winter said.
"What do you mean?"
"Normally, after one experiences a stroke such as hers, their brains are left with at least some residue afterwards. Their brains show signs of damage that could be read from an MRI, but… there isn't any." Ambrose looked at his projection, then to Ruby, then back to him.
"So she's fine?" He asked after a moment.
"Yes, sir. As if it never happened in the first place." Typically, AI's wouldn't have reason to express their emotions on their projection's faces. Even though they had them, they could easily keep it to themselves if they wanted to. But, right now, Deep Winter was happily expressing his confusion along with Ambrose as he ran even more tests to determine if there was any damage to her brain.
"The blood clot, that should have yet to be cleared entirely, and once it has, should have left behind some indication it had occurred. Her brain is as if it never happened in the first place" The AI said.
"Do you think it's from whatever that red stuff was?" Ambrose asked.
"I can't say for certain, but I wouldn't rule it out either." The AI said.
"And her augmentations? Have they been affected in any way?"
"It appears as if they are being accepted by her body more willingly than anticipated. I've been monitoring her since before the stroke, and afterwards. It seems her body is more efficiently absorbing the chemicals into her ocular system than the rest of the Spartans. Her rejection has completely reversed. She may well experience a greater upgrade to her vision than the rest of the company." Ambrose' face was blank as he considered that. His hand came up to rub his chin.
"Anything else?"
"I can't say for certain right now. She would need to undergo more testing for us to determine exactly what this is. For the time being, she is receiving her augmentations better than initially thought, I'd say we take that as a win and consider what should be done to her after the augmentation is complete." The AI's projection didn't move his eyes from Ambrose as he spoke. The man appeared to take his advice to heart.
"Very well. Keep on administering the augmentations. I want you to keep an eye on her, and watch out for any other instances of this among the other candidates. I don't like it when I don't understand what is going on with my Spartans." The man turned away, moving back towards the observation deck from whence he came.
"Already done, sir."
The low whistle of the frozen wind reverberated about the snow covered forest. A girl in a cloak that was red like roses walked slowly through the ankle high powder, alone. The trees around her stretched high into the sky, familiar yet unknown. The shattered moon overhead cast long shadows onto the forest floor. Cascading long silhouettes about the young girl on her journey through the woods. There were no birds listlessly floating by in the clouds overhead, nor any rodents scurrying about on the ground down below. The only evidence of life in this forest were the small footprints of the girl.
She trudged along in silence. Her red cloak was the only thing keeping her comfortable against the frigid temperatures of winter. Before long, the forest reached an abrupt edge of a cliff. She stood mere feet from the sheer fall, watching the landscape peak and dip like the waves of the ocean for miles and miles. In the distance, pin point lights could be seen. A small settlement celebrated in a festival unfamiliar to the girl. She didn't care. Now wasn't the time for happy thoughts.
After another minute of walking through the chilling air. She saw what she came out here to see: a single headstone, decorated with a rose emblem and scribbled with writing covered by the snow. The trees to either side of the grave framed the rolling hills beyond the cliff.
Her mind rattled for something, anything that might show her what this was. Who was this person? Why was she here? Where was she?
A powerful gust of wind fluttered her cloak to her side as the snow shifted in front of her, revealing another, smaller gravestone with a simpler rose design resting next to the larger one.
The girl took a step back. Something about this one made her heart hurt. She needed to get out of here.
She spun around, eyes clenched shut. She didn't want to see that anymore. She didn't like dead bodies. When they opened again, she was greeted with a stunning, expansive courtyard. Beyond the perfectly cut grass, tall towers and sloping arches shot into the sky. The girl's heart sagged in relief. She belonged here, she knew it.
The school she had often dreamed about but couldn't ever remember after she woke. Short, tentative steps brought her closer to the main building. Her head scanned left to right, absorbing the magnificent architecture. Truly, this place was a marvel of engineering and design. Someone must have taken years out of their life to build it.
To her left, a pristine pond was disturbed by the slow breeze, sending ripples across the water, disrupting the peace of several pink water flowers growing on green pads. As she was admiring their beauty, a low rumbling of thunder stole her attention. She looked to where the sound had come from, and, off in the distance, dark storm clouds rose into the sky beyond the mountains on the horizon. She breathed a sigh of relief; she had some time before the storm would arrive. She shifted her gaze back to the water flowers, and, before she could properly admire them, they began to sink. One by one they disappeared until the pond was as empty of flora as the school was of people.
She moved on, somewhat perplexed by the plants in the pond, but paying no mind to it once her gaze returned to her surroundings.
Tall, beautiful trees with leaves of a deep red were spaced evenly along the path into the school proper. The emerald green grass accented the red in a way that took Ruby's breath from her lungs.
Some of the trees' leaves floated down to the ground before coming to rest on top of the grass. As she made her way to the main building, she noticed some of the leaves falling faster than they had before. She kept her eyes on the trees ahead of her. When she thought to turn around and check the ones she had passed, she saw they were almost empty of leaves entirely.
She finally reached the staircase heading into the main hall of the school. She turned as she reached the top. The trees she had passed, what once were beautiful specimens of nature, were now dead husks. Their leaves at their bases were decaying quickly into dirt and mud.
She quickly turned and made her way past a statue of a woman wearing a long cloak wielding a large, mechanical scythe. She looked back one last time and wished she didn't. Before her, the trees were burning, the tall flames sent glowing red ashes and cinders into the air.
The doors into the school were wide open. The main hallway into the building was accented with ancient hardwood and marble flooring. Long banners embroidered with crossed axes about a circle of olive branches hung from the high ceiling. To either side of her, large doors led to long hallways of equal majesty, and these hallways had smaller, but equally brilliant doors in them as well.
To either side of the entrance she had just passed. Imposing knights stood guard against any foe that might think themselves brave enough to desecrate this amazing school. The girl got closer, and realized they were empty suits of armor, they were only posed in a way that created the appearance of nobility. In reality, it was all a facade.
Her hand reached out to touch one on the arm. Just as her finger made contact, the armored hand fell from the rest of the armor. Her hand shot back to her side and she jumped out of the way as the rest of the armor fell to pieces on the floor from the point she had touched it. The last to clatter on the stone was a masterfully crafted sword. It landed on its tip, and the stone proved harder than the sword. It broke in two halfway up the blade.
Fearful anyone might be here to scold her on her mistake, she quickly ran to one of the doorways leading into a branching hall from the main chamber. She didn't stop running until she felt she was far enough away from her mess where no one would be able to suspect it was her.
She slowed to a walk as she passed by door after door after door. Each one had a high-tech electronic locking system. This place was maintained well, it seemed. The numbers above the door grew as she walked. They were in the two hundreds by the time she saw the only other life she had seen since she got here.
A small, black cat licked itself on the floor. It sat in the middle of the hallway, uncaring for anything that might stumble upon it during its bath time. The girl tried to get closer, but the cat noticed her before she could. It quickly jolted to its feet. The cat's ears flattened on top of its head, and hissed at the girl, before it turned and ran off. The girl was somewhat disappointed at that. She hoped the cat would be okay out there, all alone.
The hallway she was in led into a large room. Long tables were arranged in rows around thick pillars supporting the roof above. Each table had a snow white cloth draped over it. The floor here was different from the rest. She looked down at the waxed, polished granite and saw herself. The stone had been meticulously perfected until it gleamed with a mirror finish. The girl was hesitant to step on it, she didn't know what would happen should she scuff it in any way. But, she soon gathered her courage and walked across anyway.
Through the tall, open windows, she could see the storm clouds approaching fast. A huge gust of wind pushed her backwards, sending all the cloths on the tables flying across the room. The girl tried to put them back where they were, but the wind would blow them aside each time. After several minutes of fighting mother nature, she eventually gave up, and moved to the set of large doors on the other side of the room.
Through the final pair of doors, was a simple, stainless steel elevator. It's sliding doors were open, inviting the girl to enter. She did so automatically, not even thinking of what it might mean.
The elevator went up without her pushing a button, and before long, she was standing in a green room; large gears spun lazily overhead. She walked towards the wall of windows, giving her a perfect view of the school grounds below, as well as the landscape off in the distance.
Another rumble of thunder brought her attention to the storm clouds that were almost directly overhead. The girl watched the dull grays and brilliant whites of the storm as it approached. The lightning began to strike faster and faster as it neared the sun above her until it was as if the lightning never stopped. The girl dropped to a squat as she felt the rumbling throughout her body. She screamed when she saw the light outside begin to dim, the sun was being overtaken by darkness. A few moments later, the sun was gone, and the world was completely black, and the thunder had stopped.
The girl hesitated in opening her eyes. For several minutes nothing happened, the lightning seemed to have given up. Slowly, silver eyes opened one by one to see nothing. The world really was black. Just as the girl stood up, she felt a stiff breeze through her hair, as if the room she was in never existed in the first place. White exploded in her vision as a final lightning bolt struck her.
January 12, 2545 (Military Calendar) / Onyx, Zeta Doradus system
A springy mattress and soft bed sheets were what Ruby first noticed as she woke from a very bad dream. Her eyes shot open as they had been accustomed to during her time at Camp Currahee, Mendez didn't appreciate it when people decided to sleep in. She sat up and found she was in the camp infirmary. Her eyes narrowed as she thought of what might have happened to lead her here. The last thing I remember was being sedated for the augmentations. Wouldn't I have woken up on the Hopeful?
Ruby looked around for any sort of clock. It was fairly far away, but she could clearly see, on the other side of the long room, the ticking clock on the wall read 1137 hours.
She just about panicked, and, before she shot to her feet, she realized where she was: Mendez wouldn't mind if she was late since she was in the infirmary. A second later she realized just how far away the tiny clock was. The room had to be a hundred feet long, and she was near the front of the room, with the clock on the back wall. She whistled, impressed at her new, augmented vision.
Her head spun to the door in front of her just as she heard the clicking of its doorknob turning. She saw Ambrose, as well as a few doctors, enter the room. Once they were all standing in front of her, Deep Winter appeared on the nightstand next to her. The AI smiled at her, and she returned it in kind.
"Good morning, Ruby, how do you feel?" Ambrose asked.
"I feel fine, sir." She said, her hands were clenching the sheets for comfort. Typically, when you were fine, you didn't have three doctors watching over you, taking notes on their data pads.
"You don't feel any side effects from the augmentations, do you? Beyond the intended improvements to your performance?" One of the doctors to his right asked.
"Um… No, I don't. I have to say, way over there, on the other side of the room, I read that clock clear as day before you guys came in. I think that's pretty cool." She said with a small grin on her face. Deep Winter beside her chuckled at her antics, especially in front of a superior officer. Ruby would have been more professional if she were under normal circumstances, but she didn't know what the doctors wanted, and so she would tell them anything they might deem important.
"You don't feel any weakness, pain, numbness, or fatigue?" Another doctor asked.
"No, Ma'am." Ruby said.
"No irritability, forgetfulness, or confusion?" The last doctor asked.
"I'm confused about these questions. What happened? Did something go wrong?" Ruby was confident whatever it was couldn't be that bad.
"During the ocular enhancement portion of the procedure, you experienced a stroke." Ambrose said. Okay, that was bad. "Normally, when someone is unfortunate enough to experience a stroke, they have lasting side effects such as the ones they have asked you about. But, you feel none of them. Can you tell us why?" Ruby looked between all of them, even Deep Winter, her eyes darting from eye to eye as she tried to rack her brain for what might have caused this.
"No, sir, I can't. What do you know about what happened to me?" Ruby said after a few moments. She noticed the clock on the wall had only ticked once during her deliberation. It felt like at least ten seconds had passed. Cool.
One of the doctors, the oldest man, spoke. "Well, B419, it appears as if the stroke, most likely caused by your body rejecting the retina enhancement drug, was only a mild one, and, Deep Winter here, was quick in administering an anti-clotting medicine that should have minimized any damage to you. Although, he wasn't fast enough to completely eradicate all harmful effects of the stroke. What did that, was something else."
The female doctor spoke this time. "You would have been feeling immense pain during the stroke, this kind of stress should have produced adrenaline in you, which it did, but that should have been it. In addition to adrenaline, your body produced an energy we have not seen before."
Deep Winter was the one who spoke last. "And by 'we', we don't mean us in this room, we mean the entire history of the UNSC. It took me days just to configure a device to measure it. Since the energy was coming from you, we figured you might have some knowledge on it."
She nodded. Her face scrunched up as she tried to remember. Something, there had to be something. Any explanation was better than nothing. But that's all she got. Nothing.
"I can't remember anything before a few days after our training started." She said, eventually.
"We figured. It seems this energy you produced healed you of any physical injuries incurred during the stroke, but the more mental detriments, it couldn't save you from. It's safe to say you're experiencing long term memory loss. With proper therapy, and time, you should be able to regain those lost memories." The last doctor spoke again.
"How long will that take?" Ruby asked.
"It's hard to say. Typically, it takes months for the easiest memories to return, the more difficult ones can take years. Your lucky long term memory was the only cognitive ability affected by the stroke. Otherwise you would probably be learning how to walk again in that time, instead of just remembering again."
Ruby thought about that for a second. Months? I don't have months. I still remember how to fight, how to be a Spartan. That's all that matters.
"I won't need it. I've only forgotten memories from long ago, and those don't matter anymore. I remember how to be a Spartan, and that's all I need." Ruby said.
"Excellent. Unfortunately, we are still unaware of the nature of this energy. We will need to perform more tests on you to determine exactly what this is. It should only take a few weeks, then you'll be back on the field." Ambrose said. Ruby was a little disappointed. All of her peers, including Zwei, would most likely be off fighting the war right now, or getting ahead on their training with their augmented bodies. All while she was stuck playing lab rat. She nodded in agreement all the same.
"Perfect, we can start right away." Deep Winter said.
There we go. Something that annoys me is that sometimes I'll get super stuck on a scene, and struggle to find good ideas to put to paper, while others will flow like Niagara Falls onto the page. The former happened on the augmentation scene, and the latter happened on the dream scene. I hope it's not too obvious when you read it.
Time for some review responses!
Zekken182: Well, here we are! In the future with some more Halo: The Lost Child!
Samuel Warshaw: Thank you so much for the review! Every time I read it I get a smile on my face :)
Shadow Walker of Fire: Thanks.
StaryHaloinRWBY: I'm pretty sure I PM'd you about this, but I want an opportunity for other people with the same thoughts to see my reasoning behind their heights: the Spartan III's were given growth hormone and stuff in their food before the actual augmentation. Nothing from this chapter should have made them any taller, only stronger, harder to break, and more perceptive. The reason why Ruby is so tall as a Spartan III as well is because she has Spartan II genetics as was mentioned in the first chapter.
DarkySunRise: This review is awesome! Hope you were excited for this chapter.
firewyrm2: Ruby, at the time of this chapter, is 12 years old.
LazyMan5503: Thanks, I intend to.
Helljumper206: If you thought it was sad before how Ruby is forgetting everything, you might need a tissue after this chapter. BTW, that red glow, was Ruby's Aura.
Cooldude: Thanks for the review. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we :)
michelmmm: Here's more! sorry again for the wait.
SuperKryptonian: Yes, they were, but that hasn't happened yet.
