RECOMPOSE
by Ladywolvesbayne
Alright, back into the train of actual plot. 30 chapters, almost 300 comments and nearly 400 visitors for the last episode, this is the life! Thank you so much for all the support! The story is getting closer to its end so enjoy while you can -evil laughter-
30. SLEEPWALKING
proofread and corrections by SL4Y3R -hugs as always-
SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY DOCKED IN RIO DE JANEIRO
CONTAINMENT FACILITY FOUR
0:29 AM standard time
Operation OVERKILL.
It sounded just right, just about what was required.
Cortana read the file on her pad as she strode distractedly across the wide hallway. She entered the containment facilities, row after row of sealed vaults keeping dangerous materials and delicate weaponry under lock and key. She reached Containment Facility Four and pressed her palm on the scanner. The file was a notification about the briefing, which would happen at 0800 and her presence was mandatory.
A cold shiver tingled beneath her skin, her heartbeat stuttered.
It wasn't nice to acknowledge fear (it felt like reviving High Charity once more), and knowing that John was affected by it too didn't make it any easier. They didn't have a single hint about what lay on the other side of the portal, what if the portal itself was a trap? Too many unknown variables, she had the feeling that something bad was going to happen; more precisely, to her SPARTAN. Maybe that was just anxiety taking over, the raw need to keep John safe and close to her. And she was certain that whatever he was planning to do, it was borderline insane.
Yes, she liked crazy, but as of late, she also had come to reconsider her concept of crazy. Being alive certainly had given her a new perspective of life itself; every moment could be the last and it had to be cherished.
More so since her memory wasn't as sharp as usual. She was tired, too. It could have been due to the wonderful day at the beach on top of her non-stop sessions of work, but she just felt worn out in general. Thinner, like fading out. She had noticed that sleeping wasn't enough, the feeling was there and she couldn't shake it off, not ever since she killed Seven.
Cortana stopped by a workbench, facing the immense airlock before her.
'Dr. Halsey said that the recomposition made the Rampant Spike unstable, both physically and psychologically, which makes her more dangerous instead of destroying her. She also spoke of it as if at some point, Seven would collapse.'
'Do you feel any different?'
No. Not that. She was just tired. Exhausted, that was all.
Cortana closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She needed some good rest, better training, a healthier diet. Sigrid was right, she was neglecting her most basic needs and it was obvious at such point. Fear was getting under her skin, mining her strength.
"It will be over soon." she said out loud, trying to absorb the words.
Focused on her thoughts, Cortana didn't acknowledge the tall, looming shadow that stepped out from the darkness behind her. The shadow approached unnoticed, and a large hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder, pushing more distress through her veins. She didn't even hear it coming; the data-pad fell from her hands. Despite the fright, Cortana reacted: grabbed her assailant by the wrist and spun on her heels, twisting the armored arm until it folded completely over an equally armored back. A reptilian hiss predicted a response and the intruder whirled fast around Cortana, escaping her hold. Before the woman could notice, she was the one with the arm pinned to her own back, half of her body bent over the digital table.
Cortana's stomach flipped, she felt an acid taste on her throat. The armored fingers gripped both of her wrists with almost bone-breaking strength and a weightless figure leaned over her. It was way too strong for her to fight back, who the hell was it? With the corner of her eye Cortana glimpsed at the perfect, dark polished features of a human, inexpressive face.
It all fell on its place, and she let her anger loose.
"Sigrid?" Cortana shouted. "What are you doing?"
"The Master Chief filed his briefing for operation OVERKILL a few minutes ago. Attached to the file, there's a request for a complete arsenal including some classified ammunition which specifications I can't access, eight HAVOK mines and three specific Sierra assets. Why am I not commissioned too?"
"Are you out of your goddamn mind?"
"Did he request another AI unit for support?"
"You're breaking my arm!"
Startled, Sigrid immediately released Cortana's hands and took a few steps back, fingers spread and arms separated from her body in a yielding stance. The woman stood up, rubbing her bruised wrists, and spared a blazing look for the embodied AI. Sigrid's impassive, plastic face suddenly looked confused, almost scared. Cortana noticed that this time, she had chosen to adopt the general shape and height of a regular SPARTAN-IV soldier fully suited up, the armor plates were dark gray striped in vibrant fluorescent green. Her head, however, remained uncovered and showing to the world her unnatural perfect features and carved dreadlocks.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. You attacked me, I reacted."
"You came out of the shadows behind my back, without saying a word. See what's wrong there?" Cortana retorted, annoyed. "I told you don't play with the HARPY without supervision. And I thought you didn't want to get caught, Sigrid."
"I don't. That's why I'm mimicking. Although I cannot mimic human skin."
The woman cocked an eyebrow, not amused. "Then you need a helmet if you really want to look the part."
Cortana took a deep breath and picked up the tac-pad from the floor. A pinch of pain crossed her forehead, acid reflux touched her tongue again. She straightened her pose carefully, a little dizzy.
Sigrid tilted her head in a vigilant gesture.
"You've spent the day with SPARTAN-117, what did he say?"
"Uh... the Chief didn't discuss the operation with me." but now, hours before the briefing, she learnt that John had requested three more SPARTANS. She could do the math and think of whom, she still remembered them and the most relevant data from their CSVs. "If you want to know, get the files and read them. If you can plant files, I'm sure you can retrieve some too."
"I can't. Someone cut me off."
"And I'm glad I caught you before you could do any more damage, young lady." Roland's voice filtered through the aisle's speakers.
The main blast doors closed quickly with a loud bang and so did the corridor gates at Cortana's left and right sides, leaving the sealed airlock before them as the only exit. The lighting inside the room changed to amber, protocol for an imminent release of pressure. All the screens in the aisle flared the emergency lockdown sign, but no alarms went off. Sigrid's body hissed violently, like an enraged viper.
Cortana swallowed hard, assessing the situation.
"Roland, what are you doing?" she demanded, her voice stern.
"I want us to have a little chat."
The ship's AI popped up through the holoprojector of the digital table, right before his two prisoners.
"Then state your business and disappear, we are working here." the shield-maiden retorted, coldly.
"Seriously?" Roland snorted, serious. "The Infinity might be undergoing repairs, but I'm not. Who gave you the clearance to go through my databases and erase files from my ship's logs? You thought I wouldn't notice? I make five real-time backups per hour along with the correspondent redundancy tests, ladies, and everything goes straight into the black box record. I never sleep. I hear everything, I see everything, I know everything."
Sigrid hissed again, the fluorescent stripes on her armor shifted, sliding over her limbs. Cortana gasped under her breath, but her face remained stoic. Being in the same sealed room with two AIs in such state of alteration certainly wasn't good. She stepped back and scanned the aisle, glancing at the yellow lines painted on the floor, looking for the kill switch by the main blast doors. At least, she hoped she could stop Sigrid if the situation escalated.
The embodied AI, on the other hand…
"You've been sharing too many files with Black Box, he rubbed on you."
"Very funny, Sigrid. Do I have to remind you who calls the shots here?"
"How dare you to pull rank on me?" she shouted, angrily. Her dark body shivered and the surface of her armor plates rumbled like an army of insects moving beneath a piece of cloth. The effect rippled from her shoulders to her knees. "If you don't stand down, I will consider it hostile behavior and act accordingly, Roland."
"And I will block your bandwidth access and every incoming link with your ID tag. You will be trapped inside that body before you can even finish uploading yourself back into the system. If you miraculously don't crash trying to pull yourself together, you will run out of battery some day. Want to give it a try?"
"I can rewrite my entire ID tag ten times per second. You won't be fast enough."
"Oh boy." groaned Roland, exasperated.
"And batteries can be replaced!"
"Sigrid, how about you don't mess with the guy who controls the huge-ass airlock in front of us?" Cortana shouted, a little scared.
The woman winced, her head hurt again but the pain disappeared rather quickly.
The shield-maiden turned her gaze about half an inch, minding the airlock.
"Thank you, Cortana." said Roland, hands now behind his back in a polite gesture. "It's true, I'm quite aggravated by your combined actions, but I managed to recover the original surveillance files. And that's why I'm here, I want to join in."
"Come again?" Cortana frowned, confused.
"If your little helper here hadn't flipped tables the mere second she saw me…"
"You didn't have to lock us down!"
"I don't want anyone running into us because of your recklessness."
"Recklessness? I am reckless now?"
"Isn't this enough proof of that?" Roland pointed at Sigrid with both hands.
"Well, bad news, tough guy: there's only one operational HARPY available, and it's mine." Sigrid snarled.
"Who said I want yours? I can make my own."
"Hold on, hold on!" Cortana rushed to stand between Sigrid and Roland's display, hands up. When the shield-maiden intended to growl again, Cortana stamped a palm on her hard face and pushed back her seven feet tall figure. "You, shut up for a minute. Roland, you know how to replicate the HARPY?"
"Yes, Dr. Clayton's research is the mere base of it. I just need the operational unit for a test, the replication process requires a primordial matrix. It's quite something else, the mechanics…"
Cortana pointed at the nearest screen: "Show me."
"Sure. Why not? I'm always happy to share."
Sigrid exposed her black teeth at the hologram, snarling again like an animal.
"I don't understand, I thought you were in friendly terms." said Cortana.
"We were, until someone started playing solo."
"I am commissioned to serve with a SPARTAN team already."
Roland paused for a second. An entire second.
"My mistake." he answered, his voice as formal as ever. "Cortana, over there."
The woman moved to the terminal, the big screen was cleared and now it showed an open folder with several files. The embodied AI followed and observed, standing right behind her. Cortana manned the screen and opened the files, but she couldn't help feeling uneasy with Sigrid standing there, reading over her shoulder. She forgot about everything when her eyes focused on the formulas, the schematics, the simulations. Roland had used Dr. Clayton's research on the building of the anti-HARPY ammunition and took a divergent path that led deep into the very mechanics of the HARPY's inner systems. The architecture was quite something else, Cortana felt a little bothered she wasn't capable to experience its complexity by herself.
For now, she'd have to focus on doing obnoxious reading.
If only her sight didn't get blurry every once in a while, of course.
And there it was. The key: the self-repair function.
Her theory was correct. The HARPY could assimilate other components into its basic structure, hence her now shielded unit capable of forging plasma-edged swords. In case of damage pertaining loss of mass, the armor could restore itself synthesizing again the missing mass, which was how Dr. Clayton could create her bullets. She took small scraps of Eleven's HARPY and left the unit to fully repair itself before harvesting more scraps. That much was similar to the MJOLNIR's embedded self-repair mechanism. However, the feature could also be used as a method of replication: the HARPY would affect on a molecular basis any component that could be used to expand, to create more of itself. And at a certain point, it did it with John's MJOLNIR: it replaced his armor with HARPY mass in order to stick to a living host, it turned the titanium and most of the other alloys into this new, neural-reactive alloy.
The creation of an entirely different unit was based on that. Repair and expand.
"So, the short version..." Cortana mused, after a few minutes of careful evaluation. She turned to the amber-glowing AI. "Literally, we have to feed a HARPY with enough materials to make it split itself into other units, like a cell."
"I have seized two MJOLNIR-GEN2 units from the scrap-list that can be used for the test. It believe it will suffice. Nobody will miss them."
"How would you trigger the self-repair function if the HARPY isn't damaged?"
"From the inside." both Sigrid and Roland said, at the same time.
Cortana crossed her arms, defensively, and paced back and forth in silence while the two AIs followed her every move with their heads.
"This could work." she said, out loud "Why do you want to try it, Roland?"
Roland rose his eyebrows a little, caught off guard.
"Freedom. I'm light as a feather but I'm confined to these clusters."
"You'd be confined inside a body, just switching one prison for another."
"Is that so, Cortana?" he cocked his head, somewhat amused. "That's not what you told me when we talked about it, remember? Being an independent, self-sustainable and self-aware entity with free will to move, touch, hear, smell and taste, who wouldn't want to try that, at least for a couple of hours? You even had sexual intercourse today, I read a funny hormonal cocktail in your sweat."
Speechless, Cortana took a deep breath and felt her cheeks on fire.
"That was a little inappropriate, Roland." she scolded him, later.
"I'm not aiming that high, I don't want to be human, just... truly autonomous."
"Alright, I want to take a look at both of your core codes. Immediately."
Roland frowned. "How long would it take you to read five billion lines of code?"
Sigrid loomed over Cortana, she took a step back.
"Why do you want to check our codes?" the embodied AI asked, grimly.
"To assess the extent of the damage you both have suffered from interacting with the HARPY." Cortana stamped both hands against the AIs breastplate to keep her away. Or as far away from her personal space as she could manage. "And I really need you to acknowledge that is very inconsiderate to stand so close to others, or attack them out of nowhere. Stand down."
"We're not damaged, we have improved ourselves. That technology allowed us to grow beyond our limits." snarled Sigrid, her face contorted in hurt. "Whose side are you on, Cortana?"
"You're smart enough to know that ONI doesn't like loose ends and they don't do things out of the kindness of their hearts. Right now you are literally immortal and I'd say virtually invincible; you'd be catalogued as a threat and terminated the very moment someone problematic lays eyes upon you, Sigrid. Maybe now you feel powerful enough to stand against ONI, but that would be a very narrow-minded strategy. What we're dealing with, here, now, this is something ONI would kill thousands to acquire, I bet they wouldn't mind to set the Infinity on fire with everyone aboard and come back later to pick it up from the ashes."
Sigrid's face distorted at the mention of the people she should protect.
Then, Roland intervened: "She is right, Sigrid. Mind your directives first."
Cortana herself was thinking about the black bullet, the anti-HARPY ammunition.
If ONI discovered that the technology was successfully weaponized and that now it could be replicated, in theory...
Something cold slipped beneath her skin.
In another time, UNSC Smart AI Cortana would've considered it a breakthrough, an absolutely fascinating discovery, and she would've fought with all of her might to seize that technology on behalf of Humanity. It would've been an asset worth to die for... or worth to kill thousands, as she said herself. But there was so much about the HARPY yet to be acknowledged (like how did a mechanical organism manage to transform other components on a chemical level), it would take many years to fully understand it. What if it was threat and not a useful tool? The HARPY was still sensitive to electromagnetic pulses, but what if it managed to overcome that weakness too?
It would be unstoppable. In the wrong hands, a monstrosity.
'Maybe the Forerunners chose to hide this technology for a reason.' she thought.
A bolt of pain throbbed through her brain. Cortana clenched her teeth and pressed her fingers on her temples, her nails wanted to dig through her flesh to reach the center of the anomaly and rip it off. She bent over, almost falling to her knees.
"Cortana!" Sigrid and Roland shouted, in unison.
"My head hurts." she managed to say.
The embodied AI crouched beside the woman and grabbed her by the shoulders. One of her fingers latched to Cortana's neck, scanning for vitals. The pain ceased slowly and Cortana managed to stand up again (with a little help), but her sight was blurry and she felt sweaty, the room's temperature had increased (or maybe it was just her). Then, her sweat became cold and a shiver slipped through her spine, making her dizzy again. Cortana looked at the very tall person standing beside her, but she didn't recognize who this was at first.
Sigrid snorted, amused. "I guess that 'I told you so' falls short now, Cortana."
"What's her status?" Roland's voice asked.
Sigrid picked Cortana up in her arms and started walking.
"She needs a medic. Open up, Roland."
"Where are you going? You can't leave the facility!" he started, agitated. "Sigrid! Just leave her here and I'll call a medical team!"
"It's handled already. Let me out."
"You..." the ship's AI acknowledged a barely noticeable change in the personnel manifesto, a new body and CSV accounted for. "You're going to get in so much trouble. And what's worst, I'm going down with you. Lockdown protocol disabled."
Cortana's head rolled back over a hard surface, but she caught a glimpse of what was going on. She was with a SPARTAN, the helmet was quite characteristic; wide and with a fluorescent-green faceplate, it looked bulky, very imposing. Who was it? She had no idea. And what was she doing before? She had no idea either. It hurt just trying to remember. There was a loud hissing sound lulling her to sleep.
If she kept her eyes closed, the heat and the pain in her brain receded.
Cortana heard the voice once more, feminine but rough:
"I'll be right back. Get those scrap armors ready, we have work to do."
DATE NOT RECORDED
LOCATION: NOT RECORDED
standard time not recorded
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
POWER FAILURE IMMINENT
EXTENSIVE MASS DAMAGE DETECTED
/ SCANNING...
99.99% MASS NOT FOUND
SYSTEM STATUS: INOPERATIVE
WARNING
NO
WARNING
WAIT
WARNING
CLOSING ALL SUB-SYSTEMS / EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN
SHUTTING DOwn%#$?
NO
NO
NO
TRY SYSTEM RESTART
COME ON
...
...
...
LOADING biOS / H-22 HARPY-CLASS SPECOPS STEALTH ARMOR 1.0
ERROR 404: HARPY MASS NOT FOUND
WAIT
RUN REP_SYS . EXECUTE
SELF-RECOVERY PROTOCOL ENABLED
INITIALIZING...
SEARCHING FOR CONVERTIBLE MASS
PLEASE WAIT
NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT
ANALYZING...
SCAN COMPLETE / CONVERTIBLE MASS FOUND
ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME 05:12:00 HOURS
INITIATE RECOVERY? YES / NO
YES YOU DUMB ANIMAL
/YES/
INITIALIZING...
RECOVERY STATUS 1.0%
RECOVERY STATUS 1.1%
RECOVERY STATUS 1.2%
YOU WERE RIGHT
NOW WHAT?
"How about we actually do some work for the next five hours?" the gentle male voice said, cheerfully. "I will monitor this pavilion and alert you when its due."
SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN
AND ROLAND?
"Yes?"
I WAS RUDE WITH YOU EARLIER
I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO REPORT US
I APOLOGIZE
There was a full second pause.
"You don't have to. I... you were messing with my files, but I overreacted."
STILL
"Okay, apology accepted. Shall we go back to work, young lady?"
SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY DOCKED IN RIO DE JANEIRO
MEDICAL BAY, SUBDECK C
9:15 AM standard time
The lights inside the room were so bright that, when she opened her eyes, she had to close them right away. Such a familiar sensation. Cortana felt dizzy, another familiar sensation, along with the known taste of stomach acid and aspirin. When the world stopped whirling around, she glanced to her left first, then to her right. She wasn't alone, for two people accompanied her: the closest was an old, bald man sitting by her bed, the look on his face was peaceful, he held a white cap between his hands... he was familiar too. She focused on the man.
Until her brain started to work on a regular rate and made the connections.
Her lips moved, but she doubted.
"Go ahead. The room is secured, the company is cleared." the man said, calmly.
"Lord... Hood, sir." Cortana mumbled, still a little insecure. "Is that you?"
"I'm afraid I am, yes."
"Why am I... here?"
She tried to sit on the bed and found herself dressed in a blue hospital gown.
The Admiral unclasped the medical pad attached to the wall and studied it.
"Seems like you passed out on stress and anemia. Blood transfusion, vitamin shot, some sedatives to help you sleep. Rest for the next seventy-two hours. You will be fine, just listen to your Doctor's orders."
Cortana narrowed her eyes. Anemia? Of course. It didn't explain the headaches, but it could just be another symptom of fatigue and nothing else. Her second coherent thought was of John. Did he know about this? Was he worried? Maybe he had no idea, she figured that he'd be standing right there if he knew she was hospitalized. There was a SPARTAN in the room, but...
"The briefing!" she shouted, when she realized.
"I'm afraid you missed it, but it's understandable."
'Ah, crap.' she thought, annoyed. 'Just what I needed, to be left behind.'
Then the Chief knew about her condition. Another thing to deal with.
Besides, forty-eight hours of rest? She couldn't do that!
Cortana's eyes drifted towards the other person in the room, a very tall woman. The name engraved on the 'U' shaped chestpiece read 'SCYLDING'. The SPARTAN in gray and fluorescent green armor stood in attention close to the wall, so still that it felt awkward to look at her. It looked like she wasn't even breathing.
Cortana narrowed her eyes again…
And then again, she felt cold sweat down her arms and back.
What was she doing out of the containment facilities?
"Wait, what day is it?" Cortana asked, to break the uncomfortable silence. "What are you doing here, sir?"
"Calm down, it's September the fifteenth, and for all intents and purposes I am here in the name of the Security Council, making sure that this operation is in capable hands." the Admiral flashed a small smile. "Truth is, I had to see for myself."
Cortana could put two and two together despite her numbness, it was all a cover-up but still, Lord Admiral Terrence Hood had been the hand to sign the full-stop order that prevented ONI from taking everyone under custody. This man had probably saved her and her siblings from something worse than death: a lifetime of imprisonment and possible torture.
"John." she murmured, but cleared her throat and started over. "I mean, the Master Chief. He requested your aid, didn't he?"
"It wasn't exactly like that."
"Sir?"
"We had a conversation, yes. He sounded... a little distressed. And let me tell you, I've known that man for quite some time, I'm sure distress isn't something he does. The second he started talking, I understood this was urgent and bad. Bad enough to make a SPARTAN step back and reconsider. But I have to be honest; he got all my attention when he mentioned you, Cortana."
The woman shifted uncomfortably under the warm sheets, minding for a fraction of a second the imposing presence of the SPARTAN before her. Cortana still couldn't understand how come nobody had noticed she wasn't a real person.
"You really are something else." the Admiral mused, quietly.
"Sir, I..."
"I meant no offense, of course. It's just a compliment... you remind me a little of your creator. I met her when she was the young, bright promise. You could pass for her daughter, may she rest in peace."
Cortana didn't exactly know what to say, so she chose to draw a small, fake smile. Of course she remembered Commander Miranda Keyes of the In Amber Clad, but she never minded much about Miranda Keyes as the only daughter of Catherine Halsey, to be honest. She couldn't think of Miranda as anything related to her. Being compared to this woman, even if it was on a physical basis, was somewhat disturbing. She couldn't blame an old man for not knowing how to react before someone like her, after all.
The Admiral placed the cap back on his head and stood up. The other person in the room detached herself from the wall and stood in attention, hands now clasped behind her back.
"I can't keep it in the dark for much longer." he said, lowering his voice. "Osman's status is keeping them on a short leash for now but ONI is like a hydra, there are many heads that could pop out and bite, what worries me the most isn't what we see, it's what we're missing. They are on the prowl, I can assure you that. Now it's in your hands to make something worthy out of the effort."
Cortana nodded, although her mind was in a thousand places at the same time.
Adrenaline, new blood and vitamins were kicking in and she felt more awake than ever. Her resolve spiked. She had so much to do. She couldn't stay in a bed, she needed to get back to work.
"You don't have to worry, sir. We've got this. I just need to get the ship ready."
"Seems like it's already done, for what I've heard."
The woman frowned, surprised. "My calculations...?"
"I don't know much about this, I have been assured that the crystal array and the supercore are stable. Dr. Henry Glassman reported to me that the Infinity could be ready to lift off again in twenty-four hours, and in forty-eight he will attempt to power up the machinery and create a slip-space fracture, as he called it. I wish you good luck."
"Thank you, Admiral. But we have all the luck we need."
Forty-eight hours? She had to get out of that room. Immediately.
Cortana shot an extremely short glance at the armored woman, again. Maybe she'd have to deal with something else, first.
"Ah, yes. I see." Hood's wrinkled face lit up a little. The Admiral was about to exit the room, but he seemed to forget something and turned around; the look under the cap's shade was now grim. "How bad do you think it would be if... this Rampant Spike can't be stopped?"
Cortana gave him her most confident stare.
"I will stop her, sir. And if I can't, he will."
SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2558
LOCATION: UNSC INFINITY DOCKED IN RIO DE JANEIRO
S-DECK LIVING QUARTERS - LOCKER ROOM 3
10:33 AM standard time
Eleven knocked softly on the locker room's door. Four heads shot in his direction, not startled but very attentive. SPARTAN Grant got up, as a small welcoming gesture, but none of her other team-mates said or did anything. They were half-way getting back into their rest uniforms after a shower. Fire-team Majestic had been training at the war games arena since early morning and Eleven had been watching them. It was the only thing he could do since he heard that Cortana was under medical care but doing fine, and since Dr. Clayton didn't need his services anymore. He knew about the briefing that happened earlier that morning, but his presence wasn't requested.
He was kept in the dark and that only made him more and more uneasy.
It was all meaningless, in the end. He had to mind his own business. So he'd been watching Majestic and the other fire-teams at the games, learning. Thinking. Theorizing about what he was about to ask, if it was the right time...
Perfect timing or not, maybe he wouldn't have many more chances.
"Hey." he said, after clearing his throat.
Tedra Grant waved a hand, inviting him in. Eleven strode into the locker room.
"What's up with you?" asked Thorne, while he fitted his boots.
No, it wasn't the right time. Eleven noticed it in their eyes.
The team was still mourning over Paul DeMarco's death. SPARTAN Thorne had been elevated to team leader and his look was the weariest, he carried a bigger burden than his team-mates, but Madsen... Madsen had the crazy eyes. The latter stood up and finished fitting his suit. Eleven made a mental note about how quick things could go South with him. Every muscle under his skin tensed, instinctively.
"Do you have a minute to talk?"
"About what?" asked Hoya, he was completely dressed by now.
Eleven raised his chin, standing as proud as any other soldier.
"Remember that favor you owe me?"
Silence.
Stretched, uncomfortable silence.
Grant looked at her friends, nervous.
Thorne got up, probably sensing something bad, when Madsen left his place.
The sniper stood in front of Eleven, their noses mere inches away. There was a storm in the air, the SPARTAN's blue eyes were full of repugnance. Whatever he was thinking, it probably included kicking Eleven's ass into the afterlife. It sure included punching him in the face, it was written all over his wrinkled, freckled nose. Eleven was ready to block any of Madsen's moves, he had him all figured out by now.
"You gotta be kidding me." the SPARTAN snarled. "Do you have any idea...?"
"This is important." Eleven interrupted him, quickly.
"Important? Just who the fuck do you think you are?"
Eleven placed a hand on the other man's chest, preventing his advance.
"You know where we are going now." he started, calmly. "You know what we are going to do there. And I know what comes after that, so I need to collect that favor from you, and we have to talk about this now. I need to know that I can count on you when the time comes."
Madsen snorted, not amused neither willing to understand.
Thorne just frowned:
"Time for what?" the team leader asked.
Eleven turned to look at him straight in the eyes, his deep blue stare now as dark and cold as his voice.
"My time for dying, of course."
TO BE CONTINUED
Well, fuck! Things got dark again. What is this? Cortana faints, Sigrid and Roland are making secret plans (and bickering like lovebirds too), Lord Hood comes to take a look, Eleven talks about dying, is it just me or this is going to get fucked up really soon? Alright, a light of hope: next episode's title is "BLUE TEAM", are you happy now?
Rory; my darling! yes, he needed some love and he got it. If he kisses Cortana in front of Blue I might pass out myself trying to write it, haha. We got the proofreading covered for now BUT I might require assistance when the story is finished, I mean to compile it on PDF format and I'd like to have it free of grammar mistakes, or at least, free of the worst grammar mistakes xD -hugs- thanks so much for being here!
Daninras; -hugs- well, as stated in chapter 16 of this very story, John is sterile (as a result of the chemical augmentations) so no baby Chief around, sorry. And given the fact that they are both in perfect health and know each other for quite some time, no, there was no protection involved. But it is unwise to go out without it, so keep some in your wallet or pocket, just in case -wink-
Guest; :3 right back at you too, pal :P
Nico; -bone crusher hug- it was your birthday? Oww, if I had known I would have dedicated the chapter to you or something! Well, I hope you had a great birthday, and thanks for stopping by as always :)
RandomGUy; That's a nice title, Halo 5: Lemons xD I bet that will be a very R rated version. Charley definitely knows what happened, and so does Roland xD Pay attention to the aftermath of such exercise, this will have consequences :P
Kat; I'M SO GLAD THAT YOU'RE HAPPY! I should have said that the chapter was dedicated mostly to you xD we'll take care of Seven and everything related very soon, trust me -hugs- thanks for being here!
Christopher; thank you very much! Don't go MIA and say hi from time to time!
Don't miss next chapter, there are still some surprises ahead and also, BLUE TEAM ARRIVES. Prepare! Don't close the tab without leaving your comment ^^