24 Hours later, ONI Acrisius, Unknown Location

John slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying under a tree. In the distance he could here waves. It looked like it was night as he saw two moons, one grey and the other bluish white, through the branches of tree. He slowly got up and looked around him and saw that he was on a beach... But it wasn't just any beach. John was almost overwhelmed my a sense of nostalgia when he found himself in a place he hadn't visited in more than forty years. He remembers this place, he remembers playing here, he remembers swimming here, he remembers 'making friends' with the local animals. He remembers coming here every night when he dreamt. Ever since the first time he had that dream, his parents suggested him to let them flow, and so he did... and John didn't regret one moment of it. He then realised that the last time he was here was the night before he was 'conscripted'. He gazed up at his 'friends' ... the two moons who he named Keeran and Verenus. And the world he was standing on, he named Hope. He also saw something that truly unnerved him, even though he was aware of it. John moved his head all the way back to see the Milky-way. As a kid he never paid any attention to it, thinking that it was only the Milky-way as his childish imagination perceived it to be. But now he was not sure as the Galaxy looked exactly how it did when he was on the Ark. John raised his hand towards the sky as if to touch the galaxy, but was speechless when he saw his arm and hand. They were small, as in tiny and skinny. He then realised that he was much shorter than he actually is. He quickly rushed to the shore to see his reflection, only to be shocked once again as his reflection was that of his childhood self.

'Strange.' After pondering for a few minutes he shook his head.

'All of this is just a dream anyway.' Again he began to think. When was the last time he had allowed himself to sleep and dream. All these years he had only experienced the cold blackness of the cryo tank. And whenever he did sleep, all he had was nightmares. Some about the Covenant, some about the Flood and some about... Cortana. And if by chance he had a dream, he would only dream about his failures. Again, he shook himself out of his thoughts. John then looked up to see the galaxy and saw something very strange. He saw that the stars that were just a outside the galaxy were, for the lack of a better word, forming bridges among themselves. These bridges then extended towards the outer edge stars of the galaxy, forming complex networks. These networks began expanding at faster than light speeds throughout all the stars of the Milky-way, until all the arms began to glow brightly.

John always thought that after all the things he had seen in his entire life, it would be impossible for him to be amazed. But here he was, speechless at the beauty of, well, whatever the hell was happening. Something that amazed him even more was that he was able to understand those intricate systems and networks of the stars, even though it should have been impossible... especially from the place he was observing it. He could understand which of stars formed networks with all types of stars and which formed network with only specific type of stars. And then something even weirder happened. The arms began to glow even more until they seemed like they were solid streaks of light. These streaks then began to emit smaller streaks which converged near the galactic centre. There, they began to spiral until they formed one large column... which was heading towards him at very very high speed.

In just a few seconds, the column of light reached John. He felt warm, not emotionally, but physically. John looked through the brightness and saw that everything, even the moons were engulfed within the column of light. Seconds later, the warmth disappeared and was replaced with absolute and unadulterated physical pain. Immediately john dropped to the ground as he tried to use all the pain ignoring methods he was taught. Nothing worked, he felt as if his body was being torn apart atom by atom. He couldn't even scream. All he did was curl up into a foetal position, begging for this dream, no... this nightmare to end. And it did.

John jerked up from the bed, sweat making his skin shiny. He thought it was over... But it wasn't. Only seconds later, he began experiencing the same pain he had done in his dream. As he began to convulse. A few seconds later, the pain began to come in waves. John, knew he couldn't handle much more of this. Hell, it hurt less when he was getting the augmentations. The pain was so great that he felt like throwing up. Fortunately, the washroom was only a few feet away from the sleeping quarters of the prowler. He made his way to the bowl and began throwing up. Even after throwing up his dinner from last night, the pain was still there. Alas, he couldn't bare it anymore and passed out on the floor of the washroom.

5 hours later

John groggily opened his eyes to see the lower part of the toilet bowl. Then without warning, he got the sudden urge to throw up, again. He bent over and began throwing up, but this time, it was blood. After vomiting out at least half a litre of blood, things finally calmed down. John slowly stood up. Surprisingly he felt comfortable and warm, as if he had taken the best cold shower in the galaxy, despite the ordeal he went through. He closed his eyes and the memories of everything that had happened the past few days came flooding back. He remembered when he pried the IFF tag out of his armor and stuck it to a crate, he remembered when he hid in one of the buildings and waited for the Infinity to leave. He remembered when he walked through the sand to find the Acrisius. And finally he remembered stocking up on food, water, fuel, electricity, weapons and ammo; and setting a random slipspace destination before falling asleep.

John quickly did his morning routine and walked directly to the health centre of the prowler. The health centre was as big a telephone booth, but had all the latest technology in it. John entered the small chamber and selected a full body evaluation. After which he waited patiently for the report.

'It has to be some native virus or bacteria I picked up on my way to Apogee Station. That's the only explanation. Even the MREs were within date.' He thought.

A few minutes later, the screen attached to the door of the chamber beeped twice and a robotic voice began to read the report.

"Report:

Muscle condition- Perfect

Blood condition- Perfect

Bone condition- Perfect

CNS Condition- Perfect

NS condition- Perfect

Digestive system condition- Perfect

Respiratory system condition- Perfect

Urinary system condition- Perfect

Reproductive system condition- Perfect

Brain condition- Perfect

Viral, bacterial, fungal infection/disease - Not detected

Benign or Malignant tumor- Not detected

Final assessment- Body in best possible condition."

John read the report in disbelief.

'What is happening?! The pain I experienced. Was it all in my head?!' He then closed his eyes again.

'What ever... At least its over.' After which, he went to the storage room to get an MRE, he was absolutely starving. On his way to the storage room however, he noticed a few things that he didn't before. For instance, his body felt better, lighter, stronger and more agile. He was also relieved from pain and soreness that he didn't even knew existed until they were gone. He felt like he was back in his prime. Something that did weird him were his senses. Not that they had sky rocketed or anything (they did improve), but it was almost like he had gained another sense. John swore he could feel the slight disturbances of light as he walked through the central hallway of the prowler, as though he could visualize the interior of the rooms using nothing but the light disturbances. Instead of thinking too much, he quickly and quietly ate his MRE and went to the cockpit. He put the Acrisius in a random slipspace direction with a time duration of 24 hours and entered slipspace.

"Back to business." He said to no one in particular.

John, with a cool head, now began going through all the directions by which he could defeat the created.

Nearly four hours later, he finally had a solution, or at least he hoped he had, that being... He needed to find a way to cut Cortana off the Domain. He needed to severe her connection to the Prometheans and the Guardians. How? He had no idea. According to Halsey, the Domain exists everywhere in the milky-way. It would be nearly impossible to isolate her from it. And even if he did find a way to isolate her, how would he even find her in the first place. The Domain is huge. She could be anywhere. After rubbing his temples for a while, he got up and went to one of the armory. He grabbed the Spear.

'Well, at least I can get some practice with this.' Fortunately, the room was just big enough from him to practice using the 8ft spear.

Every second of his practice/workout made him more and more agitated. That old feeling of being useless creeping in. He was getting angry at himself. He felt the shame and guilt crawling back as he swung the spear from side to side, taking out imaginary targets by slitting their throats, grinding his teeth harder and harder. Then, he remembered what his friend had told him. John finally began to calm down.

'Calm down... There is still hope...compose yourself.'

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'That's it... I could compose myself and take Cortana out from within the Domain.' The moment he said that, his chest felt heavy in the worst way possible.

'Has it really come to this.' He thought sadly, the heaviness still present. He closed his eyes, balled up his fists and took deep breaths. And when he opened his eyes, they were filled with inhumane resolve.

'I made a promise to stop all of this, even if it costs me my life. Even If I have to become a machine to keep that promise.'

Just then, the prowler shook lightly. He knew what it was... The prowler had just exited slipspace. He quickly checked the clock and saw that it had only been eleven hours since he entered slipspace, thirteen hours earlier than the prowler should have exited. Something was wrong. John quickly rushed to the cockpit and checked the monitors, only to see the one thing that brought back a lot of memories... mostly bad.

A Halo ring. Something that was even worse, was the message that he received.

The screens became slightly static, and then-

"I am *static* 007 Upper Echelon . Monitor of Installation 02. *Static* The whole ring is damaged and contaminated. If you want to provide assistance, please land on the designated island.' A robotic female voice announced. As a way point appeared on the screen.

"Contaminated" John growled.

He knew what 'Contaminated' meant...

A/N- explanation as to how chief ended up near a halo ring this fast will be provided in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed. Btw constructive criticism is always appreciated.