Title: Guardian Demon

Genre: General

Rating: T

Summery: During the Master Chief's stay at High Charity...

She ran. Too much was happening. It had seemed like such a wonderful start to the day, which had turned to hell. First the Demon suddenly appeared before the noble Prophets, wiping out the Brutes that had been protecting them, then the Prophet of Truth had declared the whole Sangeili race heretics, and now she was being pursued by a pair of Brutes. She tugged her son's hand. Her son, he was his father's all right, even now, he was claiming he could take on the Brutes, in that same tone of voice that his father always used to use when talking about the humans. Now wasn't the time to think about him, he had died at Reach, and if there was one thing he'd want, it would be for his family to live. She continued running. The Brutes were still following, gaining. They rounded a corner, and another, trying to lose the pair of ape like creatures. Her son was whining again, saying he would protect her, just let him fight the Brutes. She admired her son for his courage, given the situation, but had it been Drones or Jackals, she still wouldn't have let him, he was too precious to her, too risk. Another corner, but she ran into an obstical that shouldn't have been there, knocking her back, inadvertidly pulling her son down with her. At first she feared it was another Brute, but looking up, she saw the one thing the Covenant as a whole feared: The Demon. Not even her son, with his cocky attitude and fearlessness, was unafraid.

The Master Chief had been resting, leaning against the wall, regaining his breath. Rest is an important necessity to a soldier, if you don't rest when you get the chance, you may not have a chance to later. Truth was still broadcasting his propaganda, and he all but snapped at Cortana to shut it up, if she hadn't, he probably would have wasted precious ammo shooting at the ceiling until he hit the bloody speaker. Before she could reply, a blur slammed into him, and bounced back. He looked at the blur and saw a sandy scaled Elite, wearing what looked like a robe, and had slightly longer limbs, and differently developed muscles. A female. Holding her hand, was another Elite, barely reaching his knees in height. The infant was wearing a vest and trousers, both made of an unusual material, that looked vaguely like denim and it had white scales. He guessed that the Elites gained their scale colour as they grew older. Both were breathing heavily, and looking at him in fear. But when the mother, he assumed it was the mother, looked at him, it had only increased her fear, she had been afraid even before she saw him. He tilted his head slightly, examining them both for potential weapons. None, they were no threat. He took a small step forward, wondering why the mother would be so afraid of something, even before she saw him. A howl gave him his answer. Brutes. He looked down the corridor that they had been running down an watched as a pair of Brutes charged around the corner and skidded to a halt upon seeing him. The Chief slowly reached for the shotgun on his back, hoping neither Brute would notice. Just as his hand clasped the handle, one of the Brutes charged at him, swinging the bayonnette of his Brute Shot at him, like a sword. Grunting, the SPARTAN ducked under the blade and shoved the shotgun into the torso of the ape and fired, sending the creature flying back. Slowly, he turned to the other Brute. The alien was standing still, shocked at how easily his partner had been disposed of. He heard the two Elites gasp softly.

The Brute glared at him for a couple of seconds before throwing his weapon to the ground, berserking. John fired off a quick shot at the Brute, hitting it in the leg. The alien ignored the powerful blast and slapped the shotgun out of the Demon's hands. John ducked under the second fist, before delivering a right hook at the Brute's neck, snapping it. The Brute, despite still dying, tried to smash his fist against the Master Chief's head, again. John caught the fist, and held it in place until the Brute slowly dropped to the floor. The SPARTAN turned around. His shotgun was lying at the feet of the child. The Elite stepped away from it as he approached. John scooped up the powerful weapon, and reloaded it. He looked at the female Elite for a couple of seconds, before handing her the weapon. The Elite looked at him, surprise evident on her face, before she clicked her mandibles and bowed to him. Nodding, the Chief started to walk down the corridor, resuming his pursuit of the two Prophets. He didn't have time to stand around all day, while the leader of the Covenant had the Index. He noted Cortana standing on the next pedestal.

"Why didn't you kill them?"

"They were civillians, a woman and child. If I killed them, I'd be no better than the Covenant."

Cortana nodded. He had a point, two wrongs didn't make a right. She opened the door for the SPARTAN, into a large chamber, where a large group of Brutes awaited him. The Chief pulled out a plasma grenade.

"Betcha can't stick it."

John nodded.

"Your on."