Author's Note: Here we are, nearly at the end of this little saga I have going. I hope you all enjoy my dark little take on Halo.

Chapter 10: Everything

Nathan ran through the brush. Twigs swiped at his face, scratching him, but he ignored the stings. Amy was right behind him, and Jim was beside her. They were going to catch Wesley and make him pay for what he had done.

As they were running though, Nathan heard something above them. He looked up and saw a misshapen elite leap from one branch to the another. He realized the Flood had found them. Wesley would have to wait for a little bit.

Nathan stopped, and fired a shot into the trees, and a Flood warrior fell to the earth. Without thinking Amy put a round into it's back. The body convulsed with the force of the blast, and then was still.

More of the Flood jumped down from the leaves above. Mud splashed up from where they landed. For a few seconds the Flood and the marines just stared at each other.

"You mother fuckers," Jim yelled, and the swamp burst into vicious violence. Jim fired his entire magazine into the flood, then quickly chucked a grenade near a small group. When the small device blew, Flood body parts were thrown everywhere.

Amy fired shot after shot at the Flood charging her. Just like last time she was creating a pile of corpses. Whenever she ran out of ammunition and she didn't have time to reload she would simply use her shotgun like a club. She swung with a strength fueled by hatred, and vengeance. She would knock off limbs, or smash in chest cavities ending the lives of any Flood near her.

Nathan used his battle rifle, and would occasionally pull his carbine from his back to fire the alien weapon at the shielded Flood, but it quickly ran out of ammo, and he was back to using his battle rifle.

As he continually squeezed the trigger sending burst after burst of hot brass into his enemies, he noticed his ammo was quickly depleting. He wished that he had paused to find some of Mike's bullets, but he was also thankful for Mike looting Hank's corpse, or else he would be running dry right now.

Behind him Jim swore as his last magazine ran empty. The younger marine pulled out the plasma rifle he had taken and began firing it at the Flood. As the bolts began to scorch his enemy's flesh, Jim still held the trigger, as the weapon overheated. He let out a loud scream of agony.

He dropped the covenant weapon from burnt hands. Nathan spun to see. Jim's hands were black, with small cracks of dark crimson that wouldn't bleed because they had cauterized. Jim fell to his knees and began cuddling his wounded hands. A Flood warrior jumped from the trees above, and landed just behind the Pvt.

Jim looked over his shoulder with a tear streaked face. A look of resignation was plastered on his face, but that turned to fear as the Flood warrior brought it's arms back. Then thrust them forward into a devastating uppercut that lifted Jim off the ground, through the air, to smash his head against a tree, breaking his neck. He slumped into a lifeless jumble on the ground.

"Jim no," Amy called, blowing the head off of another infected Elite, then stomping down on its chest to crush the controller within. The Flood that had killed Jim turned, and let out it's utterly alien growl, and charged Amy, only to be turned into shotgun fodder just so many before it.

Nathan gritted his teeth, he took aim at another creature and fired. The gun sounded with the dry click of an empty magazine. He reached to his pouch, and pulled out his last magazine. He slammed it into his gun, and took aim again, and squeezed the trigger again.

The gun jammed. Nathan stared at it in horror, then looked up at the Flood that was falling from the peak of it's jump towards him. Nathan reversed his hold on the gun, holding it by the barrel. He swung just as the Flood went to swipe at his head. It was knocked to the ground, and Nathan continued to smash it, until he was sure it was dead.

Nathan stood up, panting, covered in yellowish blood, and saw a beast with six tentacles coming from its back. It just emerged from the forest, walking with an eerie calmness that a human would posses. Amy had just reloaded her shotgun, and she looked up.

"What the fuck is that?" she demanded of anyone who could provide her with an answer. When none came she brought the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder, aiming at the things chest.

Until it's tentacles snapped forward, and easily tore Amy apart, like she was a doll. Nathan stared in horror. What the hell was he going to do now.

"You cannot stand before us reclaimer," it said in a low gravely voice, shocking Nathan. It stepped forward. Nathan threw his gun at it, but a tentacle hit the gun, breaking it in half. The tentacles wrapped around Nathan, lifted him into the air, and threw him into a puddle.

Nathan lifted his face from the muddy water, spitting some out. He could hear it behind him. He spun onto his back, and jumped to his feet. He charged the creature, though he didn't really intend to do anything by it. The creature simply swatted him aside.

"You are the reclaimers that we have feared. You are weak," it said.

Nathan spit blood from his mouth, and looked up at the thing approaching him. It's tentacles snapped forward and enrobed him. The creature lifted Nathan a few feet above the ground. Nathan looked down at it, and what disturbed him most was that the thing seemed not to have any eyes.

"What are you?" he asked.

"I am the avatar, we are the Flood," it said, almost like it had practiced this before. It's tentacles began to constrict, taking the air out of Nathan's lungs. He couldn't breathe, blackness was creeping in around the edges of his vision. He was going to die here, he had failed.

"You are weak, you can't hold anything" the creature said, and Nathan screamed.


Kevin sat in the dark room, water was dripping somewhere in the back. Nathan had just brought his son's body down from where he had hung himself in this shitty apartment. He had barely seen his son since Shelly had kicked him out. Kevin had barely been a teenager, but he had hung himself in a deep depression, but Nathan had been unable to help.

Jasper had died a while earlier, mostly because Shelly didn't give a shit about the dog, except that her keeping the golden retriever caused Nathan pain. She and her new husband later tried to sue Nathan for emotional damages when he told her about Kevin's fate, and she had won, despite the fact that she was supposed to be watching him. Nathan was broke, and had to live in the Marine barracks.

Then he had been promoted to Sgt. and given command of Platoon 6, where he quickly made friends. Then he had been sent to planet after planet to fight the covenant. He had seen the men under his command, his friends, get torn apart but Nathan kept pushing. The war only got bloodier, until it reached the peak of bloodlust on Earth, where every single Marine in his platoon had been killed except for eight, including himself. Now, even they were lost in a war that knew no limits, and had no mercy.


Nathan felt himself dropped to the ground, and the armor on his shins prevented him from bruising as he had landed on a rock. He looked up at the Avatar, who just hit him again. Nathan was thrown a short distance, and landed face down in the mud.

Nathan struggled to his knees, his back to the Flood Avatar, who was slowly walking towards him. Nathan's mind reeled from the sudden flashback. He didn't feel the moisture soaking through the fatigues stretched over his knees. He didn't feel the chill that ran up his back, and through his limbs. He didn't feel the blood that ran down his chin from a split lip. He could only see his son's face.

The creature was right, he hadn't been able to hold on to anything that he had held dear. His wife, his dog, his son. It had all been taken away with the swish of a pen on paper, and the stretching of a rope.

Then the marines that had looked up to him, that had turned to him for support and help when their grief overcame them. He had cared deeply for every single member of his platoon, now they were all dead, buried in glassed soil around the galaxy. The Avatar was right.

"You are weak reclaimer, like all the others. You and your entire species will become one with the flood," the creature said.

Something snapped inside Nathan. Just in front of him, laying in the dirt, was Amy's arm, still gripping her shotgun. He remembered she had loaded it, and pumped it. Without looking behind him, Nathan reached down and picked the gun up. He got to his knees, holding the gun. The Avatar was almost right behind him.

"You will die reclaimer," it said, almost mocking him.

Nathan turned and pressed the barrel of the shotgun against the creature's head. It stopped, it's tentacles began to coil up to strike. Though it didn't have any eyes, Nathan was sure he saw surprise on what there was of the thing's face.

"Reclaim this," he said. When Nathan pulled the trigger, he wasn't a Sgt., he wasn't a marine, he wasn't a member of the UNSC. For the first time in his life, he was Nathan Little, the man.

The buckshot shell in the shotgun's chamber fired, and the pellets tore through the avatar's head, and it exploded in a shower of yellow gore. The creature fell back, and Nathan stood over it, and fired another shell into it's chest.

Calmly he found Amy's body, and took her shotgun shells, and her grenades. He reloaded his shotgun, and dropped a grenade under the Avatar's body. Then he walked into the woodlands of the Swamp.

He was going to fulfill Amy's and Jim's last wish. He was going to avenge Mike and Sara. He was going to satisfy his own need for vengeance. He was going to remove this threat to humanity.

Most of all though, he was going to redeem his own soul.

Nathan Little was going to kill Jonathon Wesley.