Sorry about the long ass wait, this chapter took a lot of revising and I'm not feeling up to it.

Hopefully you enjoy this chapter.

Union was standing under a dark area, concealing most of his form. He was currently in the City of Vale, where it was much more peaceful when he last saw it. There were checkpoints restricting access to the defensive line the military had set up against the tower's assumed landing zones.

Union turned his head towards the source of footsteps.

His partner had a scroll on her left hand and stopped walking a few meters away from him.

She sighed, looking to the side with a frown on her face.

"Is there a problem?" Union spoke.

She looked back at him. "Sorry. I'm just a bit shook from the trip."

"Did anything...noteworthy happened?" He asked.

"Nothing you should worry about." She responded simply.

"Okay...so, the map?"

"I'm holding on to it."

He raised a brow. "How else am I supposed to do my plan?"

"Well, I don't trust you with this, so I'm tagging along."

"What?! That wasn't part of th-" She raised her index finger to her lips.

"Shush, I know it wasn't part of the 'deal'. But during our travels, I can't exactly trust you in not losing it."

He narrowed his eyes on her. "Then we're at the road again?"

"Mhm. Also, where are you planning to go?"

"Where we first met." Her eyes widened at that.

"There?" She shuddered. "So many awful memories."

"Am I an exception?" He asked.

"You are a part of the awful bunch." She replied jokingly.

He pouted. "That hurts you know."

"That's why I said it in the first place."

"Ow."

Before the conversation gotten a bit longer, his partner grabbed his wrist and pulled him away. "Come on, let's go. I think I know the directions."

"Aye."

~~~Time skip~~~

"This forest scenery is getting old." Union complained.

"I know." She agreed.

They have been walking for an hour, trying to find their way to the liberated base. Everything about the walk seemed repetitive to Union, the pace, the sounds, the looks and the smells. It felt like they were back on their journey again, which felt annoying.

"You know...that village. What was its name?" Union spoke up, trying to start a conversation.

"Rainsford." She answered.

"Huh."

"Speaking of names." She started. "We never introduced ourselves. My name is Celeste Grace, and you are?"

'Yep, just have to wait.' He thought. "Union." He replied.

"That's a weird name. Nothing about you feels unifying."

"I guess my parents liked being ironic. Your parents probably do too."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"For a name like Celeste, you aren't very...um...heavenly or innocent like what the name probably implies."

"That's not true!"

He chuckled. "I'm not taking that back, that's punishment from me being 'awful' to you."

"Hmph!" She crossed her arms and continued her walk.

"Okay, I'll take it back. You're as innocent as a six-year-old." He mused.

"I liked it better before you took it back." She grumbled.

Sooner or later, they had arrived in the village, which was surprisingly still standing. Union and Celeste heard a squeak, and the former had a poison headcrab on his face. However, he didn't have neurotoxin in him for some reason.

Celeste pulled out her weapon and used her rifle mode to try and kill it. But Union held up his hand, and Celeste watched him grab the headcrab and held it away from his face.

It wriggled a bit, then it chirped. Union had a stoic face all the while, before hugging the creature with a smile.

"OH MY WORD I FORGOT ABOUT YOU!" He exclaimed, pulling the pet away. "How've you been, buddy?" He asked.

It squeaked and sort of bended its body towards Celeste, who perked up.

"Um, hello?" She waved hesitantly.

Union readjusted the pet crab until it faced her.

"That's Celeste, my...partner." He said to the headcrab.

"Why the pause?" She muttered under her breath.

"Anyways, since you're here. Can you tell me where the others are?"

It jumped out of his hands, earning a yelp from Celeste. It scurried away further down the road, looking back and bobbing up and down.

"So...do we follow it?" Celeste asked.

"Mhm." Union nodded, walking towards the crab.

Celeste followed soon after. The headcrab settled in Union's head, with his companion walking a few steps away from him. Union noticed some shield and city scanners milling about, some of them socializing with kids. The locals greeted the trio as they walked passed them, the trio returned the gesture.

After getting out of the village and into the forest again, and after walking for a good 15-20 minutes, they found the outer walls of the camp. There was a Combine squad stationed at the entrance, they looked at him, then the headcrab on his head, and then towards Celeste. The shotgunner nodded at Union, who returned it with a nod of his own.

Union faced Celeste. "Well, we arrived. The map?" He stretched his hand out.

"Um, how about after you used the map I'll go?" She suggested.

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but relented to find out her true meaning later. "Alright..."

They entered, greeted with the sight of patrols and idle things happening about. Some soldiers were loitering around some crates, gunships patrolled the skies, striders either patrolled or idled, hunters were playing tag, resistance members talked amongst each other, zombies were wandering around aimlessly, and the Antlions scurried around a warehouse.

The squads patrolling made way for the trio, the NPCs looked at them as they walked towards the headquarters. After an antlion guard was given a pet to the head, the trio made their way to through the HQ. Elites, zombines and poison zombies guarded the hallways, looking at them as they passed. They reached the pseudo map-room, which used to be a storage room filled with maps.

Inside, a table was set in the middle of the room. A singular red eye focused on the map on the table before looking up to the trio. The elite straightened up and walked towards Union. The headcrab on his head jumped off to another table as it watched the reunion unfold. Celeste stood there like what Union does in parties.

The elite looked at Union, who in turn stared back with a hint of a smile on his face. Soon, the elite spoke.

"Sir." It was one word, a simple one.

"Hm?" Union hummed.

"How're you feeling?" The elite asked.

"I'm pretty good."

"Do you think you can fix the problem?"

"I'm sure I can."

"What's the plan?"

"Gather the leaders."

--Line break--

On one side of the table, an antlion soldier stood in place of the Antlion guardian, who was too big. A Zombine with an Elite uniform stood next to it, with Barney and Alyx next to it. The Elite specialist leader looked at the holographic map being showcased by the scroll set down on the table.

On the other side, Union and Celeste stood next to each other. The former looked up and started to explain his plans.

"So, we are going to break in to the tower. I have some plans for this. One, we just storm in."

"That's going to get most of us killed." Barney spoke up.

Union nodded and continued. "Two, we use the antlion workers to dig under the defenses and into the lower side of the Citadel."

"They don't like the thumper though." Alyx said.

"Right. Three, we wait for an apt moment to strike."

"That'll take too long...and its generic." The Elite said.

"O-Kay. Four, I'll kill myself and hope something works."

A confused growl came from the Zombine.

"Eheh, um. Five, we do number two. Except once the limits been reached, we'll use the striders!"

The antlion soldier chittered.

"Yeah too loud. They'll hear it, or feel it." Union placed a hand to his chin. "How are we going to do this..."

"Why don't we ask for help?" Celeste suggested, bringing the attention to her.

"From who?" Barney asked.

"The military?"

"Sorry, but I don't want to use them as cannon fodder." Union said.

"You were planning to use them as cannon fodder?"

"No, more of a distraction. Same thing though."

"I might have a solution." The elite spoke up.

The occupants turned their attention to him.

After a small pause, the elite continues. "The guards of the Citadel have the same pattern as us Overwatch units, they don't attack unless the opposing party harbors ill intent, trespasses, or in your case," he looks at Union, "is a...threat. Since the Valean forces attacked, they're classified as hostile, the Overwatch units however are different."

"We are considered a friendly, but not to the extent that they'll allow us to kill them willy-nilly, they'll immediately know that we are originally hostile and attack us. But they will let us in, but you two," the NPC looks at both Union and Celeste, "will be killed on sight."

"And that's one problem." Barney said.

The elite nodded. The room was silent again before an abrupt question was asked by Celeste.

"How about we just hide? Until the right moment presents itself?"

Alyx was the first one to say something. "That'll work."

The antlion chittered and the Zombine did a grunt. The other NPCs were about to voice their approvals when a sentence came from Union.

"Hold up, what did you," He looked at the elite. "mean by 'two'?"

Celeste looked at him. "Um, I'm going to be participating of cour-" She was interrupted by him continuing.

"Now wait a second, last I heard you wanted out in my plan. Why the change of heart?"

"I just want to help."

"Why? Why do you want to help?"

"Because it's the reason I became a huntress in the first place!"

A pause. Then Union raised a brow and was about to reply when the elite beaten him to it. "Ma'am, there will be consequences. The conflict you're going to partake in has more weight than you think."

This made her hesitant, but she still didn't back down. "I'll be fine. Just let me help."

Union shrugged. "Suit yourself."

He looked back at the map. "So plan A then, except no shooting until we've been discovered."

The NPCs nodded, then walked out to prepare the upcoming raid. Celeste looked at Union, then spoke.

"Thanks, I'll make sure I'm not a let down."

"Oh, you won't." He replied.

~~~Time skip~~~

The Citadel was busy. Engineers worked on various vehicles that needed repair, or just general maintenance. Soldiers filed in and out of entrances and hallways. In place of Breen's office, sat a sort of throne room that had a long hallway, a window at the back of the throne, and massive pillars. Infront of the throne was a table that had a holographic projector.

On the throne was a futuristic black knight, its sword that glows red at the edges and crossguard held up by its arm hanging out idly by the side of the ceremonial chair. It was looking at the table infront of it, a small red holographic girl was sitting on it. She had a long-sleeved shirt and skirt.

The knight had a helmet that was akin to Kane's helmet from Titanfall 2, except there was a single red eye acting as a visor. It's armor plating was black, and had two red glowing lines on each side of its chestplate. The rest of its armor is too hard for the author to explain because he can't quite explain it in his head out to the document.

Anyway, this guy looks edgy, I mean really? Red and black color scheme should be telling you enough. Even though we don't know if it acts edgy, maybe it'll edge walk towards our protags.

Okay, I'll stop interfering with the story.

The holographic girl suddenly spoke up after a long time of staring at each other. "An air group is approaching."

It nodded at her to continue. "It's probably one of those glitches again, we'll set up some engineers to fix them up."

It stood up and looked outside of the window. Sadly, the throne room was at cloud level, so it couldn't see anything. It sort of slumped a bit and walked back to sit down on the throne.

The girl looked sorry. "I know. It's boring."

It nodded.

Little do they know, it won't be boring for much longer.

~~~END~~~

This fic is sort of falling apart to be honest, like I said before back at part one...this fic has a half-assed story that only has main events planned out and the ones in between each event are just thought of along the way. Sometimes, I have ideas that contradict with the original plan I was following through. And suddenly I have a new storyline that'll either be accepted by me or rejected.

This chapter was rewritten several times because of it.

Responding to reviews time...

Gabe2000: Okay.

I'll take the juice only thank you, no need for some juice-bending.

Luckyshot8: Haven't I answered this question before?

Must be my attempt at immersion.

Yes, she is an OC. Celeste Grace, the huntress back at part one.

RandomGuest: Ecks Dee.

Huh, didn't know about that.

I must be playing too much TyperShark as a kid, or they just look like something that'll bite you for the fun of it.

DrM-FF: He'll get there, I'll probably make a skit about that.

I'll get there, still have to find a way to make the next chapter longer.

Anyways, I'll only be responding through chapters if it's a guest or if I feel like I should let some people read it.

Also won't be responding to a hate reviews, only when I feel like it will I actually respond. Or if it's genuine criticism I'm willing to take.

Hopefully, I'll see you next.