Thel quietly took out the two Marines without alerting the two humans retrieving the Icon. He was conflicted in his actions, but knew now was not the time to strike against the Hierarchs.
"We've got trouble," the dark skinned human said, raising up his weapon as the female stayed behind him.
It was then Thel charged at the armed human, and with a roar he knocked the weapon out of the human's hands. He grabbed the human by the neck and lifted him of the ground.
"How ya doin'?" the human said sarcastically. Thel roared again, tossed the human to the side, and activated his armor's camouflage when the female picked up the gun and started to fire at him. He snuck up on her, knocked her to the side, and watched her get pulled away by the power of a gravity hammer.
"Excellent work," Tartarus said condescendingly.
"The Icon, is my responsibility," said Thel, noticing another Jiralhanae remove the male human.
"It was, and now it is mine."
"When the Prophets learn of this, they will take your head!"
"When they learn?" Tartarus let out a cruel chuckle. "Fool! They ordered me to do it!" Then he blasted Thel over the edge of the pit where the Icon had been retrieved from.
Ailene had no idea how long she'd been in pain for. She remembered feeling a blast of pain over the bond, and then she felt her abdomen tightened painfully. One of her guards had immediately picked her up off the floor and brought her back to the master room as Sasan barked out an order to the second guard.
"Breathe, Ailene," Sasan said, holding her hand and trying to get her to breathe normally. Ailene struggled to steady her breathing, but Sasan continued to coach her until she was steadily breathing and a female elder had come to help.
"Keep it up, Ailene," said the elder, and she recognized her as the one who taught her Sangheili medicine. "Your body is protecting your little one. You need to relax your body before it endangers you and the child."
Ailene did as she was told, gradually getting her body to relax and the elder continuously rubbed a herbal gel over her exposed abdomen. By the time the pain had subsided, the sun had set and lights had been lit.
"You have pushed yourself too far," the elder explained, "and the shared pain was the tipping point. If you and the little one are to survive, you cannot do what you did today anymore and the bond needs to be dampened."
"Dampened?" Ailene asked with concern.
"Not blocked off as that would be detrimental," the elder explained. "Only dampened enough so pain cannot be shared between bond-mates. This can only be done if all members of the bond agree to do so, and it is temporary."
"I do the same with my husband," Sasan chimed in. "The other wives do this as well when their husbands go off to war. We all failed you and our Kaidon for not bringing this up before his departure."
"How is this done?" asked Ailene, feeling exhausted now.
"We will get to that tomorrow," said the elder, "for now, you need to rest. Today has been filled with stress, and tomorrow you will be resting."
The last thing John remembered before slipping into the mental space was him jumping into water to get away from a plasma beam and something pulled him into the dark depths. He was sure he was still alive; he still felt some pain from his earlier fight with the Honor Guard.
The first thing he noticed was Ailene's door being closed and Thel holding the door shut. The alien partner was panting in pain, slumped on the ground, his head bowed down and his other hand was pressed against a steaming wound.
"Thel?" John got his attention and he slowly raised his head. "What happened? Is Ailene-"
"She's recovering," Thel said, clearly exhausted. "I don't know what happened on her end earlier, but when I was injured, her body reacted to my pain as her own..."
John's eyes widened, immediately thinking the worst case scenario.
"She didn't miscarry," Thel quickly added. "She's resting right now. I shut the bond as quickly as I could to protect her and the little one."
"But since you two have completed the bond, it's going to be an issue unless you two can come up with a solution," the Spartan pointed out.
"There is a way to dampen a bond. I just need to wait for her to wake up, avoid accruing more injuries, and the two of us can dampen it to where she will not feel my pain."
"That's possible?"
"You have much to learn about bonds, demon."