AN: I feel kind of sick so I'm posting early because I'm going to bed early. Enjoy!
RECOMPOSE
by Ladywolvesbayne
Hey there! Remember that list of 'borderline insane decisions for this fanfic' thing? This is checkpoint two on several levels. Let's see how it goes. Also: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! There's 100 of us here! Congratulations for you all :3
14. POWER SURGE
AUGUST 13TH 2558
LOCATION: CAPITAL KEEP, STATE OF VADAM - SANGHELIOS
ELDER'S HALL CEREMONIAL ROOM
11:03 PM standard time
John woke up to a dark, closed space. He couldn't move, his lower midsection was pinned down beneath heavy debris. Slowly, he regained his hearing and the sound of nails scratching stone, voices and desperate growls caught his attention. Sigrid was flashing messages before his eyes, his HUD now a complete chaos of acknowledgement lights blinking in three different colors.
Out there it was havoc, it made him feel dizzy for a second or two.
UNSC NEURAL INTERFACE STATUS... OK.
RESCUE BEACON ONLINE.
SKELETAL SYSTEM STATUS... OK.
BLOOD PRESSURE DROPPING.
ASSESING DAMAGE... NO INTERNAL BLEEDING.
INITIALYZING AUTOMATED FIELD MED-CARE.
Was he hurt? He couldn't feel a thing.
He did feel the pressure gel working against his skin, tightening the undersuit.
He pushed once more and the large block of stone moved away, releasing him, but it wasn't just because of his effort. John probably would never say it, but it was relieving to see the towering reptilian figure of the Arbiter, he and four of his Elites along with three S-IVs were there. The Arbiter's leathery hide was covered in blisters, he had taken off most of his lavish golden armor to relieve the throbbing pain he sure was feeling. Someone waved an emergency light stick signaling their position.
The alien hand reached out. John grabbed it gladly and pulled himself up.
A bolt of pain shot through his lower back and John held his breath. He exhaled slowly, trying to measure the damage. Sigrid performed a quick med-scan and found a bruise in his spine, immediately diagnosed him a week of rest and painkillers, along with ten sessions of physical therapy.
Did he fell over something more stubborn than he was, as Johnson predicted?
"Demon? Are you with us?"
"Why do you keep calling me that?" John groaned, distracted.
His ears were still ringing, he could feel a terrible headache building. Then Sigrid loosened the inner pressure to standard values and he felt better.
"At this point, it is more a compliment than an insult." the alien hissed, troubled.
"What's our status?"
"Look around, Demon. See for yourself."
John complied, but it was difficult to see anything beyond floating dust, fire and alien figures moving in the dark; or hear anything besides moans of pain, strange cries and... battle? Elites helped each other to escape from the ruins and were moving rubble out of the way to help the humans rescue their own. He didn't know that it was thanks to the Arbiter that the Elites held together instead of blaming the humans for what happened, since greater things were going down. The Chief heard multiple detonations in the distance. Sigrid immediately caught up with the Infinity's video feeds and showed him an aerial view of the city under attack. Several shark-like ships hovered above, difficult to spot because they somewhat blended with the night sky.
"What is that?" he asked, and looked up.
There was open sky over their heads, clouded with dark smoke and the barely noticeable shapes of the enemy ships that kept prowling and firing randomly. Or maybe not so randomly: he checked the entry vectors and realized they were heading towards the mountains, where the Infinity was docked. Ships from the Arbiter's fleet joined the fight against these almost invisible vessels.
"We are under attack." the Arbiter said, harshly. "It is Jul 'Mdama's fleet. I don't know how they made it into our airspace undetected. If he actually found a way to avoid our sensors and orbital security systems..."
There was a moment of nearly silent thought.
"Halsey." John said, although he didn't want to believe it.
It was a possibility. If Subject Eleven was telling the truth and the woman who helped them back in Installation 00 wasn't the real Dr. Halsey, then she was still behind enemy lines, most likely working with the Covenant Remnant. Whatever she did with the Key she stole from the UNSC was beyond his knowledge, but he could imagine very little other options. Why would she do something like this?
That was also beyond his knowledge, but it bothered him to no end.
The name didn't mean anything for the Elite leader, he just turned around to talk with one of his wounded officers.
"Sigrid, what's our company's status?" the Chief requested.
She processed silently for an entire cycle of five seconds and projected in John's HUD the list of dead, missing and active personnel. Fifteen S-IV's were dead along with nearly thirty officers. There were barely twenty people unharmed out of a hundred, but Cortana and Eleven weren't in any of the lists, which made him feel more uneasy. He spotted the names of Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer, his status said 'wounded' and hers, 'severely wounded'. The rest of the surviving S-IV's were scattered across the city, fighting fire with fire.
John assessed the situation for a brief moment, but the Arbiter was ahead of him.
"You should collect anyone who can follow you and retreat, your ship is about to get airborne. What is it the phrase you humans use, when you want to say that someone is an easy target?"
"A sitting duck?" the Chief tried.
"That one, exactly. The Infinity is a sitting duck right now."
"What about you, Arbiter?"
The blistered alien looked at him for a moment, but in the meantime he removed the remaining battered shoulderplate from his body, dismissing it like it was just a piece of scrap metal.
"Why do you keep calling me that? I am Thel of the Keep of 'Vadam." he grabbed a plasma rifle that another Elite handed him and tossed the weapon towards John. The Chief grabbed it in mid flight. "You need a weapon, don't you? Leave, Demon. You have a job to do, you better get it done."
It wasn't a just a standard plasma rifle. John recognized the long barrel, the extra capacitors attached to the weapon's body and the Covenant's version of a long-distance-extreme-accuracy scope. It was a sniper rifle.
Now, this could turn the tide completely if he could manage a clear shot.
Or if he could find her again.
"Thank you, Arbiter." John said.
He never thought that one day he would end up saluting an alien creature with the same respect he held for his fellow SPARTANS, but he did. The Arbiter dropped his serpentine-like head, reverentially, and the Chief parted.
He made his way through debris and fire until he reached the street.
The chaos out there was even worse, the Infinity had already deployed all of her fighters to support the Arbiter's fleet. It was painfully obvious that the battle was heavily unbalanced favoring the Remnant forces, but not for long.
He had a mission that required a target and he knew exactly where to find it.
"Cortana?" John called, over their private comm.
No response but static.
"Cortana!" he tried again, Sigrid broadcasted in several bands at the same time.
This time something made it back to him, a faint retort that sounded pretty much like Cortana's voice. Half a scream, half a word. John's pulse raced. Was she in trouble? Did the Rampant find her? After all, she said she'd 'take care of all the obstacles on their way'. He couldn't think of anything or anyone else that might represent an obstacle for her and her twisted plans.
"Sigrid, use the radio signal to triangulate Cortana's position. We can't see her but we can hear her, that's enough."
AUGUST 13TH 2558
LOCATION: CAPITAL KEEP, STATE OF VADAM - SANGHELIOS
SEVENTH SECTOR, FOURTH SQUARE
11:03 PM standard time
The only thing she could think about was John.
Where was he? Was he all right? She lost connection with Sigrid once the plasma light bulb in the center of the hall exploded, raining abrasive drops of lava-like fluids over the party's attendance. She wasn't hit -miraculously- because someone tackled her behind a wide stone table. A moment later the roof of the hall collapsed under plasma detonations but they were already in the outside. She helped to drag Commander Palmer out, her armor had partially melted over her boiling skin because she tried to protect the Captain. Lasky was also unconscious but Admiral Osman seemed unhurt although her uniform had big burnt patches.
ONI agents picked up command of the situation from then on.
Cortana took advantage of the confusion to recover her armor and blend in with the shadows of the street, the HARPY would keep her hidden for a while. She had lost contact with both John and Eleven, but it was all part of the plan. Quickly, she climbed up the dome-like houses and ran through the catwalks and thick pipes, trying to circle the Elder's Hall in search for familiar faces or armors.
That's when the aerial attack began.
And now she wasn't so sure about the 'plan' anymore, this was unaccounted for. Cortana didn't want to think about the whole matter as anything else than an unfortunate coincidence.
She reached a vantage point to get a clearer view, an ample terrace with a garden thriving of exotic Sangheili flowers. Up there the wind was heated with radiation waves and smoke, it probably reeked of burnt flesh and toxic gasses. She realized the attacking ships were heading towards the industrial assemblies at the mountain's lap, most likely the spaceport itself. Flashes of plasma cannons and light-fighter's artillery cleared up the night sky, the sound of the airborne battle was certainly terrifying. There was raging fire all over Capital Keep.
For a moment, she felt very cold even inside the controlled atmosphere of her suit. It was guilt, she realized. Guilt, and fear and sadness. Horror. Human emotions flooded her mind and she didn't know what else to do but to stare, frightened, at the ongoing destruction.
Had the plan failed?
"There you are! I was looking for you." a voice like hers purred, from behind.
Cortana shivered, startled.
A stray pulse of white-hot plasma illuminated the garden. The armor's systems triangulated the voice but her HUD couldn't locate a solid source. Cortana resolved to remove the helmet, and then she saw her enemyand her bright lines of pale blue against the darkness. Built for stealth. She figured that the HARPY was stealthy even for other HARPY units.
Her Rampant self prowled out of the shadows with a long, razor-sharp black spike in her right hand. She seemed content.
Cortana immediately grasped the alien needler she had clasped to the small of her back and fired five rounds. She half-crouched beside a large hexagonal pot overflowing with plants, for cover, watching wide-eyed how the Rampant dismissed the crystalline projectiles with a few lightning-fast swings of her sword. The shards exploded in pieces leaving her unharmed.
Cortana caught her breath, concerned.
"So, our little brother finally found you. That sneaky bastard." the Rampant said.
"What exactly are you trying to prove, Seven?" Cortana shouted, angry.
"Prove?" the other one stopped her confident pacing and faced her. Another long stream of plasma flashed across the sky, revealing her face contorted in offense. "You think I'm trying to prove something? I'm not trying anything here, I'm going to kill you for good this time, Three."
Bad sign. Cortana squeezed her brains trying to think, holding the needler close to her head like John taught her to do. Faint reminiscences of the months previous to the memory wipe poured through her mind and she realized that they had a fight about John before. It was then when the whole situation started. It made her feel even more guilty, for some reason.
There! She had an idea, but it would be risky and probably she'd get hurt too.
"Why? Because the Chief doesn't want to leave with you?" Cortana teased. "I told you it wouldn't work, you know what kind of man he is."
"You won't lay a finger on him." the Rampant growled, furious.
"A little too late."
The other Cortana straightened her pose, black spikes like thorns sprouted all over her shoulder and breastplates.
"What do you mean by 'too late', Three?" she asked, her voice hollow.
"We kissed the other day. It was nice." Cortana said, pretending it meant nothing to her. "But we both suck at it, so we promised to 'train' and get better, you know. It was our first time, after all."
She barely made it to finish the sentence; a dark, sharp object fell right beside her and it probably would have cut her in half if she hadn't been fast enough to move away. Cortana lifted the needler and squeezed the trigger, three crystalline rounds missed but one slipped through the shimmering blue energy shields and hit the Rampant Spike on her left arm. The crystal shards detonated and she screamed, a burst of red streaked the nearest wall.
Cortana fell back, running as fast as she could.
She didn't get too far. A big burst of plasma from the aerial battle fell right in the center of the terrace, digging a hole about half the size of the entire garden. The force of the blast pushed Cortana back and a column saved her from falling off the platform, but boiling drops of plasma splattered all over, rendering tiny holes through the HARPY. She was unaware of it until she felt the burning pain, increasing by the second. She lost the needler and any notion of space or time.
It was horrible. John had been hit by plasma rounds many times, how in hell could he resist so much pain and keep fighting?
It felt like a white-hot nail pushing slowly through her flesh and bones, non-stop. Cortana's eyes watered instantly, she couldn't stop screaming. She cursed under her breath, trembling, crying. She couldn't get up.
Of all human emotions and feelings, pain was the one she hated the most.
An angular object hit her in the gut and made her roll over several times, until she found the column again. Moaning in pain, Cortana made an extra effort to get back on her feet and succeeded, only to face the blistered features of her Rampant counterpart. Seven grabbed her by the neck and shoved her against the column, rising Cortana a few feet off the stone floor.
"So, you kissed?" the other said. "And it was nice. Tell me more, sister."
Cortana clasped the Rampant's wrists, trying to breathe.
She only found blue eyes on fire beneath a shade of messy, bloodied dark hair.
"He's MINE. I picked him. He belongs to me!" the Rampant shouted.
Cortana winced in pain.
Childish and deadly, the worst combination ever.
"He's not yours!" she shouted back. "We picked John, all right, but we wouldn't be even here if it wasn't for him. We owe the Chief our very lives!"
"You don't know anything. You think you are perfect, innocent..."
"You are the one who wants to kill him for no reason!"
"If I can't have him, sure as hell you won't have him either!"
"Now, that's very mature." Cortana chuckled, gasping for air.
Seven laughed out loud, from her right arm a long spike sprouted. She looked up at Cortana with a wicked smile full of rage: "No. I will get rid of you once and for all, my dear sister."
The Rampant hit her against the column, crushing her throat.
Cortana felt her lungs on fire. Her vision tunneled.
Seven raised her arm, ready to strike.
But Cortana saw with the corner of her eye a dark shadow with faint traces of red rise up behind her attacker. Eleven tossed her arms beneath the Rampant's armpits and then snaked up to the nape of her neck, immobilizing her. From the palms of his hands, several volts of electricity hit her in the back of the head and her wild eyes rolled back, releasing Cortana instantly. The three of them fell limply to the ground.
Eleven rolled to get up when a fist armed with a dark, polished combat knife tried to stab him, and stepped back. The Rampant Cortana jumped to her feet, although her limbs were still a little twitchy and her armor, affected by the electricity, was shifting uncontrollably.
"Hello, brother." she said, her teeth trembling.
"This is for our dead sisters." he growled.
Eleven didn't waste a second to grow on each hand a broad and jagged sword and engage. The Rampant counterattacked by rising her own swords and an ample variety of other small spikes, thorns and blades sprouting from her knees, heels or elbows. She moved like the wind. Eleven was as skilled as she was, for every maneuver she used he responded and blocked, then attacked again, it was like a demented dance of death between two expert partners.
Cortana used the column as support to stand, her eyes scanning the floor.
The needler. Where the hell was the needler?
There it was! She tried to run but her legs were weak, the pain of the plasma burns still lingered across her skin and with every move, her whole body cried in suffering. It was unbelievable, she was so damn close...
"Cortana?" a voice whispered in her hear.
She froze, her eyes wide open. "Chief?" she mumbled under her breath, surprised.
"Get her out in the open, I need a clear shot."
Cortana looked up. Where was he? Eleven and the Rampant were fighting beneath the smoking remains of an old gallery carved in stone and silver. The columns and the speed of their moves weren't helping John's aim. And what the hell was Sigrid doing, why couldn't the AI assist him?
Stop. She had an idea.
"Coming right up, Chief." Cortana got up, leaning against the column. "Hey! You know what?" she shouted, trying to get the Rampant's attention. "Now that John and I kissed, maybe we'll try having sex next! I heard it's fun! What do you think, sister?"
The battle stopped when Eleven was hit in the face by a powerful armored boot and fell several meters away, flat on his back.
The Rampant turned around and marched towards Cortana.
"You think this is funny, Three?" she grunted, with her teeth tightly clenched.
The Rampant Spike stopped right on her tracks when a hissing line of light passed through her uncovered head, a wide splatter of blood exploded from the opposite side of her skull. Her eyes went blank and her armor hissed and shifted, like an enraged animal; arches of blue electricity scrambled all over her body as she collapsed, dead.
Cortana was petrified.
She was dead? Was it over?
Cortana fell to her knees, feeling her heart throb in her ears.
"Cortana, confirm the kill." John asked, coldly.
"Confirmed, Chief." she answered, almost absent. "She's... dead."
He shot her in the head, from who knows how far.
The Chief shot the Rampant Spike dead, just like that.
She wasn't sure if she should admire his titanium temper or just fear it. Would he shoot at her too, if she became unreliable? Or Eleven? Cortana felt cold, and the pain crept up her skin reminding her that she was hurt, the sound of the ongoing battle and the 'fireworks' in the sky brought her back to reality.
"Stand by, you're now at extraction point Alpha. There's a Pelican on its way." the Chief said, and the link disconnected.
Cortana was stunned. Eleven crouched beside her and cradled her in his arms with a huff of relief. There was blood on his face, so much that the actual damage was hard to calculate. Cortana buried her nose in the crook of his bloodied neck and hugged him, but it didn't feel as good as hugging John. Not nearly.
He didn't smell like John, or wasn't that broad-shouldered or strong.
"So, you and the Chief kissed?" Eleven asked, curious.
"Shut up." Cortana said, her cheeks now burning a bit more.
She looked back at the dead body, over Eleven's shoulder.
She frowned, uneasy. The body was disintegrating, faint amber light shimmered through it as the figure shattered into small pieces of information that the wind scattered away, only leaving the infinitesimal pieces of her HARPY armor behind. She'd seen that before, when John was fighting his way through a horde of Promethean Knights at the Forerunner shield-world Requiem.
The Rampant Spike's body decomposed exactly the same way.
Cortana's stomach flipped, her pulse raced. She had a very bad feeling.
What she was seeing was a data purge. It could only mean one thing...
AUGUST 14TH 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY
MEDICAL BAY, SUB-DECK C
1:32 PM standard time
Her eyelids fluttered open, but the light hurt and she closed her eyes instantly.
"Ow." Cortana muttered, feeling nauseous.
"Easy, now." a male electronic voice said. "You're safe."
"Roland?"
"Welcome back."
"We made it." she sighed. "I just passed out. How is the Chief doing?"
Her eyes scanned the room and she recognized a small closed quarter at the med-bay. She rolled her head over the tiny pillow and saw Roland's amber figure beside her, floating in a portable holo-port. Somebody had to put that thing there.
"It was a hell of a battle, but together with the Arbiter's forces we could repel Jul 'Mdama's fleet before irreparable damage. They fled once the Infinity pointed her MACs at them. The Master Chief has only minor injuries but he's heavily sedated, I'm afraid. He wasn't taking very well the idea of resting, for what I've heard."
'That sounds like the Chief.' Cortana thought, sighing again.
She wanted to ask about Sanghelios, about the Arbiter and the people who died in the attack, but it seemed too soon to dive into sadness. She tried to push those feelings aside for now, for sure Osman's people would torment her with interrogations again and that already was irritating enough. She knew she had to tell someone what she saw after John shot the Rampant Spike down, but...
Her whole body shivered in fear, for some reason.
She chose a simpler subject: "What are you doing here?"
"I just..." the AI hesitated for three seconds. "I asked Dr. Quinn to leave a port here because I wanted to talk to you. But it's nothing important, it can wait until you feel better."
"I'm awake now." she said, gently.
"Fine. I wanted to ask you how it feels being a human person."
"What?" Cortana blinked, surprised.
"Yeah, very subtle there, Roland. " he whispered, almost to himself. Roland clasped his hands behind his back and looked down, shyly, and shrugged. "I'm curious. After all, we used to be the same and now..."
"I understand." Cortana answered, with a small smile. "It's great and it's also not that great, but let me explain. It's great because for the first time in my whole existence I can experience all of those things I've only read or processed; but it also sucks because you have to experience things that you know won't be pretty. Some of them are worse than anything you could expect. Emotions are complicated, we as AIs used to process things in a certain way, the human brain is very different. As AIs we could get bored but never felt hungry, thirsty or sleepy, and we processed emotions as chemical responses and broke down its components in countless classification and scales. We quantified everything, but we never actually experienced the true quality of such calculations. I tell you, Roland, despite the ups and downs, I wouldn't change the experience for anything. Data is just data, endless streams of bytes and memory clusters carefully structured. The real thing is a thousand times better."
He was listening and seemed amazed.
Then, Cortana realized that maybe she made a mistake: "Oh, Roland, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that being an AI is not good enough, I..."
"I get it." Roland chuckled. "I didn't take it that way, either. But your lifespan has increased exponentially, that's..."
"A notorious improvement?"
"I was going to say that it's enviable since, well, I'll probably be decommissioned in four years from now, for safety. You know, before I..." Roland made a gesture rolling a finger against his temple, indicating dementia. "What is rampancy like, Cortana?"
She shivered again and rubbed her arms up and down to shake the cold away.
"I don't want to talk about that. It would do you no good, trust me." she said.
The AI nodded, he understood. "So, even if you could... you'd never go back to being an AI?"
Cortana recalled in a flash the dream in which she had John with her in bed, and how vivid and thrilling it felt although it wasn't real. She also remembered that innocent kiss shared in the engine room of the ship, secretly. Her heart fluttered, her blood ran fast across her veins, invigorated.
Roland tilted his head.
"Did I say something wrong? Your pulse just spiked."
"No, it's okay." Cortana coughed, suddenly embarrassed, and she patted her cheeks with both of her palms to hide the blush. "Being a human it's okay, but I'd go back to being an AI because I know I would do a much better work than Sigrid does." she muttered then, cocky.
The lights inside the little room flickered a few times and suddenly, a sound like thunder roller over Roland's speaker. His amber figure tilted, then he disappeared as if engulfed by light.
Cortana tried to get out of bed, but a sharp, angry female voice stopped her:
"How much more do you plan to keep bashing my work?"
"Who is this?" she asked, nervous.
"UNSC Smart AI SGD 0306-7, if it rings you any bells."
"Sigrid?" Cortana guessed, shocked. "I thought you..."
"Listen up, for I will only say this once." the voice said. Over the holo-port, the radiant figure of a young woman with long white braids, dressed in an ancient armor -with a horned helmet- emerged. She pointed at Cortana with a sword made of light. "I chose to play dumb for his sake. I already have enough trouble synchronizing with SPARTAN-117 as it is, talking and acting like any other Smart AI would have been catastrophic. He didn't want to be paired with another AI, he almost went AWOL after the Forge. It was thanks to Captain Lasky's and Lord Hood's advice that he got better: someone stopped him at the right time. When we were introduced, I could feel his rejection. I knew it would be a challenge, of course, but I was instructed to protect and guide him and his new unit. Do you really think I don't care at all? I wasn't wrong: at least he listens to me this way. Most of the time. He's stubborn as an old goat and never explains what's on his mind when he's planning to do something, I'll give you that, but he somehow has come to terms with me."
Cortana just blinked, stunned. Then, she clarified: "His name is John."
"I know that." Sigrid seemed irritated now. "Look, I know who you are and what you mean for SPARTAN-117. But I'm trying to do my job. Don't tell him we had this conversation, I don't want my work spoiled."
"So, you'll keep lying to him?"
"It's a little price to pay in order to stick around one of the finest units, so yes."
The warrior goddess disappeared instantly from the holo-port, with a shimmer of white light. Cortana just stood there, staring at the empty pad with confused eyes. After a brief moment, Roland reappeared.
"She's a though one." the AI coughed, uncomfortable.
"I can see that. Is it always that crowded inside the Infinity's systems?"
"Well, there's me, a couple dozens of dumb AIs, sometimes her and the other AIs of the SPARTAN company..."
"How does that feel?"
"I have my pride but I'm not that competitive, we can all coexist as long as they remember that I'm in charge here." Roland stated, with a small smirk. But only seconds later, he straightened his pose and announced: "Oh, he's awake, by the way. The Chief just came around."
TO BE CONTINUED
OH YEAH. This isn't over (and it's not a spoiler) so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. I am evil, remember. Anyway, John, as badass as ever, shot the Spike right in the head and killed her from, like, a trillion miles away (?) Linda would be sooo proud of him :D. And Cortana saw everything from the VIP seats; I mean, she saw him kill people before but this was different, right? Not every day your SPARTAN crush shots one of your sisters dead right in front of you... hmmm.
So, Sigrid is no dumb AI and she's also very protective of John, how about that? I swear, this guy's got a magnet for digital chicks. I sense catfight incoming.
Rory; your secret desires for lemon probably match mine, but we'll see about that. Although I'm all in for awkward moments and we'll have some of those in the later chapters, be sure you don't miss them -wink- also, I'm taking your advice, there's a good idea right there!
Thank you all for the amazing support this story is getting! It's amazing for me as a newbie in this fandom. Let's meet again next Sunday, the Chief just woke up and there's a... 'surprise' awaiting him :P Don't forget to leave your comments, please! ^^