Author's Note: I'm a few years late with the Sangheili civil war timeline. This will be considered slightly AU.

Chapter Fourteen: Endings and Beginnings

After our walk with the whole family - Chief included - I had to jam to get back to my apartment before I was due on base. Technically it was my day with the kids today, but Willis agreed to drop them off at school and daycare on his way in this morning so I could go get changed. I left my dog with his usual caretaker, showered quickly, and dressed in my battledress uniform.

It'd be another long day of maneuvers and paperwork, but I was oddly looking forward to it. And I was anxious to see if Caleb was back yet, too.

I rushed out of my car after checking my watch once I'd pulled up to the regimental building. I was running a little late. Hopefully no one would notice.

In the hall just in front of my office, I found my aide, Gunnery Sergeant York, waiting for me. He saluted, and I saluted back.

"Ma'am."

"Gunny."

"Good to have you back. Major Brewer and Commander Lloyd are waiting for you in the briefing room."

I guess that answered the question as to whether or not Cal was back. "Thanks, Gage." Then I realized what he'd said. "Wait. Commander?"

"Yes, ma'am. Our spook came back with a new stripe."

That was interesting. Maybe that was why he'd been called to Sydney. Although I knew the brass wouldn't make him do a trip like that for a promotion only. I wondered what else was in store.

As soon as I walked into the room both he and Dani saluted. I did so in return, then gestured for them to relax their stances.

"Welcome back, Cal. And congrats on the promotion. It's very well-deserved."

He gave me a small smile. "Thank you, ma'am."

I folded my arms across my chest. "So? Who wants to give me the scoop?" I glanced at Lloyd. "We've all been eagerly awaiting your return since we found out about Puget and the portal business."

Caleb frowned. "Well, I guess I'll get right into it, Colonel. There's been an...incident on the Elites' homeworld."

"So I heard. What's going on?"

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep you up to date while you were on leave," he began. Then he looked at his wife. "And I've only just been given clearance to tell you, Dani. But it looks like the rebels are causing more trouble on Sanghelios than we would've liked." He sighed. "A small contingent of human Insurgents went through the portal on Puget a few days ago, along with the Prometheans they've been sending. The Elites not only found it that it was them shuttling the AI-bots to their planet through a back door, but the rebs also blew up one of their sacred temples during the raid."

I blew out a breath at the news, and noticed my XO tensed. This was exactly the kind of thing Ethan had been warning about while we were in the Outer Colonies, and we'd learned about the rebels' intentions with the portal through Javier Laraza's interrogation. It was why I'd set in motion plans to not only capture the site, but to rig the portal to blow ASAP, so this couldn't occur. Unfortunately, only half that plan had been implemented before I'd been stripped of command. All activity after that, other than the routine defense of our main camp, had ceased, per Major General Bolowsky's orders. My hands had been tied at the worst possible time.

"Shit," was all I could say in reply.

"Yeah. So now things are...complicated. And Puget is very much at risk for a counterattack."

"Well, that'll be up to our replacements to handle," Brewer said matter-of-factly. "Puget's out of our hands now."

"What about the Sangheili civil war?" I asked. "Ethan said - Lieutenant Ackerson mentioned they were busy fighting each other right now."

Caleb nodded. "That's accurate, ma'am, which makes things even trickier. There are still some factions on-planet that are on our side. But they're very quickly becoming outnumbered by those who wish to eradicate us - and who've wished that since the end of the War eight years ago. And you can bet that having humans, of any kind, on their planet pulling stunts like this is not endearing us to anyone." He ran a hand over his short, dark brown hair. "As of now, the rebels are really throwing a wrench into things. This could start another war between us and the Elites if we don't stop them."

"Ackerson said as much on Puget," I added ruefully.

"He was right."

Things were quiet for a while as we all took in the news. Another war wouldn't result in a conflict as dire as fighting the Covenant as a whole had been, but both sides had come out of the long War beaten and decimated. Us especially; it had taken literally everything for humanity to survive that war, and we still almost hadn't made it. We would have been completely erased as a species if we hadn't allied with the Elites in the end.

After nearly thirty years of warfare against far more technologically advanced beings, things had been that bad. We couldn't afford to face the Elites as enemies again so soon - the UNSC was, in a lot of ways, still rebuilding.

"Okay," I said, putting my hands on my hips now. "So what does HighCom want to do?"

"They want to send in a regiment to help," Caleb answered, then he swallowed. "They want us."

I nodded. "I figured as much."

"Anything beyond that?" Brewer asked, rejoining the conversation. "The Elites aren't just going to let us waltz onto their home turf."

"No. They aren't," Cal said. "HighCom's in talks now with a human-friendly group out there - they call themselves the Swords of Sanghelios. They're going to help get us planetside once we make it to Sangheili-occupied space."

"And what's to stop the unfriendly factions from bringing down our ship?" I questioned.

"I was told we'd have an escort, ma'am. It may be in the form of...transferring the troops onto a Sangheili vessel before we land."

At that I frowned. "Smuggling us in? An entire regiment?" I shook my head. "I don't know about that. I don't trust the Elites that much."

"From the talk I heard in Sydney, Colonel, those might just be our orders."

Finally I released a sigh. I couldn't even fathom the thought of entrusting the lives of my men and women - all fifteen hundred of them - to our former enemies. There'd been exceptions in the past, of course - I'd fought alongside the Elites at the end of the War, and even developed a begrudging respect for the one attached to my company at the time, Atalom 'Kuatee. But I had not been acquainted with anyone new since, outside of the religious zealots called the Storm - who'd incidentally also wanted to kill us.

In short, they didn't have a great track record when it came to not wanting to murder my species. And I was supposed to just welcome this new alliance with open arms?

Besides that, I just couldn't see how the logistics of all this would work out.

"Okay, so let's say they manage to get the troops dirtside. What about supplies, vehicles? Hell, what about our damn air support?"

"Like I said, ma'am, HighCom is trying to work out the kinks now. I still haven't gotten official word, but I was told to give you and Dani a heads-up." He looked at us both then, very serious. "That means no briefings with the other battalion commanders yet. And Colonel, I know the two of you are currently separated...but that means no mention of this to your husband, either."

"I know the rules."

The ONI operative nodded. "Of course. Just had to make sure."

I crossed my arms again as I glanced back at him. "What's the timetable on this, Cal? How soon do they want us to go, if that's what they decide?"

"I was told three weeks, ma'am. Four at the most."

"All right." I looked to my XO then. "Well, unfortunately, you know what that means, Dani."

She nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I'm out for this one."

"Do you have a replacement in mind?" Lloyd asked.

"None I'd want more than your wife, but...I think I might know someone for the job if they're available."

"Who?" Brewer wanted to know.

"Major Justin Delaney," I answered. "My old classmate at War College. He replaced Major Mullen when Wayne was wounded right before we shipped to Requiem, and he did pretty well. I think he'll do a great job as my second. I'll have to get into contact with him and ask, though. And probably get General Bolowsky to sign off, too." I turned to the major again and smiled a little. "I'm sorry you're getting left behind for this, but at least it's for a good reason."

She smiled back. "Yes, ma'am. It is."

I took a step back towards the door. "Okay, then. I think that's it for now. Cal, you'll keep me apprised of what the brass decides to do?"

"Of course, Colonel. And I'll let you know as soon as you're clear to spread the news amongst the rest of the senior staff, too."

"Excellent. Then I'll be taking my leave. I've got some other things I'd like to get to this morning before it gets too late."

Three weeks. Four, tops. I could hardly believe it. By the end of all that it meant we'd only had about three months of downtime between assignments, not counting travel time. It was crazy.

Willis and I had practically just gotten back - and we'd only just gotten back together. The news would be very hard for the kids to take if we were ordered to deploy, and that hurt my heart. It hurt even worse to know I'd be separated from them again in so short a time.

I'd missed them so much when I'd been in the Outer Colonies. They'd been a big reason I'd kept trying to escape and fighting to stay alive while I'd been a prisoner on Puget. Through all I'd endured, they'd been my motivation to keep going. Now I was finally home, just starting to come to terms with things...and I was very likely going to have to leave again.

It wasn't something I could even wrap my head around all at once. For now, I needed a little something to ground me before I got into the rest of the day's work, so I decided to take a quick trip to the mess hall first.

The base mess was huge, much larger than the hastily put-up ones I was used to in the field, or even aboard transport ships. That made it all the more remarkable that I ran into Ethan as I was sipping the steaming cup of coffee I'd picked up.

At first when his eyes met mine - rich brown ones, the same color as his hair - he seemed a bit astonished and looked away. He continued walking a few more steps before glancing back, and that's when I caught his arm with my free hand.

"I need to talk to you," I said without preamble.

"Here?"

"Outside."

He gave some motion of acquiescence, not quite a shrug but close, and followed me.

"What's up?" he asked once we were out of earshot.

I made sure we weren't out of sight, though, of quite a large number of servicepeople hanging around the mess. Just in case.

"Cal just got back from Sydney. Did you go, too?"

"Yes."

"What were you told? About Sanghelios?"

He scoffed at me. "Natalie, you know I can't answer that."

I folded my arms across my chest. "Well, I can tell you what Lloyd just told me."

"Actually, you might not. He outranks me now, as I'm sure he's very pleased about."

"Ethan. Stop playing games."

For a moment he looked exasperated. "I'm not - fine." He gave me a pointed look. "The rebs attacked through the portal. Blew up some religious monument or something on the Elites' homeworld. But you know that, right? So why ask me?"

"I just...are you going to be part of the op to stop them?"

He rolled his eyes. "No. I'm privy to the information, but as I'm sure you know, that cluster went to your regiment to fix, and I've been reassigned. So...good luck with that, I guess."

"But you...shit. You predicted this all along. It's not fair they're pulling you off the mission."

He snorted. "Yeah, well, life's not fair, right?"

At that I glanced down at my boots and paused. I didn't know what else to say for a minute.

Then I looked up again and asked, "When do you report to your new unit?"

"Tomorrow."

"That soon?"

"Yep. You know the military doesn't waste time with these things."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Were you going to actually say goodbye this time, or just disappear again?"

My ex threw his hands up in defeat. "I don't know, Nat." He took a deep breath and added, "I love you, but I saw the way you looked at the trial - wounded. You miss Willis. He'll always be the one for you, and I'm done getting in the middle of that."

"You're right. I did miss him," I responded softly. "We're back together now."

"You're still not wearing your ring," he pointed out.

"No. But we're...working on things. And that's enough for me right now."

He nodded slowly. "Well, in that case, I'm happy for you, then. I...want you to be happy, by the way. Even if it's not with me."

"Thank you," I said with complete sincerity. "Are you...still seeing your lawyer?"

A self-deprecating smile spread across his face. "No. I think we both knew that was just a casual fling." He stared off into the distance for a moment. "She's young, and she's smart and beautiful. She'll land on her feet."

"And you?"

"I will, too," he said with a long sigh, but still half-smiling. "Someday."

I swallowed then. "Willis told me...we agreed there'd be no more contact between you and I, from here on out. Never again, for us to move on. So I just - " I found I had to swallow again to get the words out. "Take care, Ethan."

"You, too, Natalie."

We reached for each other and hugged for a long time. He'd seen me through one of the worst events of my life, through me falling apart and trying to rebuild myself again after I'd been released from captivity. And from Garrett, at least, he'd quite literally saved me.

He'd also done some very horrible things to me himself in the past - things I'd never forget, and still hadn't forgiven. But I had long since moved on.

I'd say he was about even now, between the number of times he'd risked his neck for mine on both Requiem and Puget. And I'd miss his companionship and advice...even if we'd often not seen eye-to-eye.

Despite everything, saying goodbye to Ethan still felt like losing a friend.

Before I returned to my office, there was still one more stop I had to make.

Given that this was an airbase, the airfield wasn't too far from the mess. I downed the rest of my coffee on the way over, lamenting the fact that I hadn't picked up another. After my long night with Willis, I found myself already yawning, and it wasn't even 1000 hours yet. But in this case, I didn't mind the missed sleep.

I was thinking I might've just missed him gearing up for a flight, but he was thankfully still in his office. I knocked on the door before going in.

He glanced up from behind his desk, surprised to see me there.

"Hey, Coop. Need something?"

I walked up a little closer and met his gaze. "I just wanted you to know I said goodbye to Ethan just now. It's done."

He stared at me for a while, taking that in before he let out a heavy sigh. "Okay. Thanks for telling me."

I nodded in return, and walked back out.