The Seraph's Broken Wings
By: Sinead

Chapter Four

Author's Note: I know, I know, I usually don't write fluff chapters, but there are a few things that I have to address for explanation and plot purposes. I promise that this will be the last fluffy chapter you'll read before I get back to real plot-making. As usual, I don't own Halo. sighs But why can't I at least own Arbiter? I don't ask for the Chief, but . . . only Arbiter, people, c'mon! He's the other cool one!

The years ticked by, the children growing strong and sturdy. They passed their thirteenth birthday . . . then their sixteenth . . . but in their seventeenth year, everything fell apart.

Sibilee was the strongest of the four, having being able to wrestle with his father with ease. He had the bulkiest build of the four children, yet was still growing and filling out. Pandora was the fastest and most accurate with anything that she got her hands on to either shoot with . . . or throw. Many was a time that her parents had to reprimand her for throwing things at her siblings when friendly banter turned ugly. She also had the perfect memory of a Spartan. Yukae always remained slim and delicate-looking, but was deadly. Her feet never made a noise as she walked, she melted into shadows, and was a whirlwind with any bladed object. She was the best hacker they could get, and often did so for the fun of it.

John Orion inherited his father's luck. He was looked upon as a young leader, even though he was never the fastest, strongest, or even the smartest. But he had luck, and had a strong intuition that never proved itself wrong. His siblings and school friends soon learned not to gamble or bet with him. He shared his sister's gift of remembering everything and forgetting nothing.

That's why he knew upon entering their apartment from sparring with the IIIs that their parents had been taken by the Covenant. The signs were unmistakable.

"John, I found something."

The boy looked over his Elite sister's shoulder, his sparring-armor still on and smelling like something died in it. Yukae was kind enough not to mention this as he said, "Show me."

"This address, right here."

"John and Miranda Spaldin . . . Spaldin . . . Hey, Dor! The last name 'Spaldin' sound familiar to you?"

"Slightly. Heard Mom saying it upon the phone once, about two years ago," came the reply. She walked out of their parents' shower-room, rubbing at her short, red hair, her cheeks ruddy from the hot water. "She was laughing, saying something about 'John Spaldin, if you don't get back here soon, I'll be forced to kill this husband of mine before you get around to doing it!' and then saw me walking in the room and told him that she would call him back later. I guess that they're old friends, but I never heard or saw her or Dad talking to them other than that. There's also a few old pictures I just unearthed from under her bed. Ones that I've never seen before with people we don't know. I left them on top of the sidetable."

Sibilee growled a curse. "There's more, though. Something tells me that there's more."

Yukae nodded, already hacking into databases, pulling up a civilian picture with a small bio. He looked oddly familiar . . . and to have married the famous Miranda Keyes? Something didn't fit. Pandora pointed to a line halfway through the bio. "This is one of the people I don't recognize in the pictures. Look. 'Two children.' He adopted Miranda's son when he married. Hey, pull up that bio on her, Kay."

Once done, Yukae breezed through the career service vitae, coming to the point where she had married. However, there wasn't a picture of the woman. "'Adopted John Spaldin's daughter upon marriage.' You three feel weird about that, too? I really haven't seen any vids on her. You really only hear about her father, Captain Jacob Keyes. It's almost like the UNSC and ONI have erased her from the public's eye. I mean, almost nothing other than her discovery of the second ring is credited to her."

They heard two voices arguing over something, but upon entering the halfway-demolished apartment, the Elite voices halted. It was Leader, their father's old friend, and his nephew Boratamee. They ran over to where the four kids were. John Orion pointed to a picture of Miranda and this John Spaldin. "Who is he, and how did he marry Miranda Keyes. Why is he in pictures with Mom and Dad."

Leader blinked over the bio. "Do a search, Yukae."

"For what?"

"Spartan-IIs."

She did so without asking questions, and came up with pictures of different Spartans being awarded for successful missions, pictures caught of them in battle, everything.

Pandora picked one face out instantly, sharpshooter eyes unfailing. "Him."

They pulled up the CSV. Sibilee swore. "Master Chief Spartan 117, born John; no last name mentioned. Rings. He was the Demon."

Leader sighed. "Arbiter told me that if there ever was something to happen to him and Willow, I was to get you four to that man. Boratamee, tell ONI to flush the mission down someone else's alley. This is the bigger problem." He looked at the four. "Pack up. We leave immediately."

None of them noticed that lower on the page was a picture of the Arbiter, the Master Chief and Willow, each beaming and holding one of three small infants.

John "Spaldin" pulled that exact picture out to look at. He wondered what those two looked like now. They weren't allowed to send pictures to one another anymore. Sighing, he replaced it in the hidden drawer in his desk, standing and stretching his arms over his head after balancing a bank account. He hated the life of a civilian. It was boring. Well . . . when he wasn't mediating between two Elites or an Elite and a human about something completely moronic in the first place. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. If it wasn't one human family antagonizing their alien allies, it was another. It was more boring now than ever, but each new argument and accusation still grated sharply against his nerves.

Sniffing, Miranda blew her nose, sick and out from "work," which was doing the same exact thing he had been doing. He turned, smiling at her sadly. "You all right?"

"I feel like crap, John, like you have to ask."

He chuckled, moving swiftly to end up leaning over her, kissing her forehead. They had come to love each other, but John was careful after that time with Willow, and they hadn't had a child together. Two were more than enough to deal with. Especially since one was Spartan-bred and had some exceptional qualities. Phaedra was lithe and strong, able to handle any hand-to-hand technique her father gave to her, but her real strong-point was her mind and her reflexes. Some of the augmentation had affected his DNA, it appeared. He was curious as to how the other two of the triplets had fared.

"I'll go get you something to drink."

"Thank you."

He busied himself in the kitchen, hearing the doorbell ring. Phaedra was closer, and she stood to get the door, her waist-long red hair falling free.

They were dropped off at the moderately-sized two-story house with a message from Leader, who couldn't leave his responsibilities at the military college. John Orion looked at Pandora, Yukae, and Sibilee. "Well, we're not going to get anywhere from just standing here."

Snorting at her brother, Pandora walked up and rang the doorbell.

The door opened. She faced a mirror image of herself. The girl blinked in shock. "Da-ad!"

Rushing over, ready to kill, the Master Chief skidded to a halt, seeing . . . "My God. Pandora, John, Yukae and Sibilee."

"Always last," Sibilee griped. "How do you know us?"

Miranda had rushed out from their room upon hearing her husband's shocked voice. And she smiled, saying, "Let them in, let them settle down."

The elder John looked at his wife, concerned. "Don't push yourself. Go back and lie down."

"With all this excitement out here? Hah. I wouldn't miss this for a chance to command the Amber Clad again!" She grinned. "The couch is cosier, anyway."

Phaedra and Pandora just continued to stare at each other, taking in the fact that they were each one half of an identical twin set. John Orion looked at the man whom he shared a name with. The two Elites were talking with Aidon, who was visiting from college. He had remembered the day the triplets had been born, but had been asked not to say anything about it when he was old enough to promise.

After a long while more, Pandora shifted her gaze to the Master Chief. "You're our biological father."

John looked at her. Rather, both Johns looked at her. The elder nodded slowly.

"Why did you separate us?"

The Spartan sat back just that bit more. "I would never have separated you three for the world. but it all had to do with circumstances."

"Can you tell us?" the boy asked.

Sighing, the answer came. "Arbiter and Willow had talked long and hard about it before I even was told. You know that he was MIA for over two years?" After getting their nod, he continued. "I cared for Willow during that time, not trying to take his place, but trying instead to just be there for her. I know how much they loved each other, and she was ready to take off and go after him. But the UNSC needed her here, on Earth. So I volunteered to help her stay here, to help her keep moving from one day to the next." He looked desolately from one face to the next. "Sometimes, I was the only thing that kept her from killing herself, to keep her grief from consuming her. On the two-year mark, however, she broke down worse than before, and would have killed herself."

"Apparently, you stopped her with a convincing reason," Sibilee said, an Elite smirk in place upon his double-jaw.

"Just you wait until I get my hands on your father, boy. He has more sense than to let you get away with comments like that," John shot back, getting a barked laugh in return.

"Be that as it may, who said that Father ever caught Sibilee?" Yukae replied.

Their two human siblings groaned in unison at remembering different events that had happened in their past. John Orion smiled kindly. "Will you be telling the rest of what happened?"

"Arbiter came back with the twins, and surprisingly didn't kill me," the Spartan replied, shrugging. "I helped him re-adjust to life where you four probably still live, and he conscripted my help with watching you two, Sibilee and Yukae, as well as general helping with Willow while she was as bloated as a–"

"John, be nice!" Miranda yelled from her place on the couch.

"She'd be the first to admit to being bloated, Randi, and you know it."

"Doesn't mean that you have to call her that."

He grimaced, shaking his head. "Well, Willow had known how . . . well, how pleased I was that we would have children. After two years, she had just stopped holding up enough hope that your father would return. You three kept her with us those last six months before Arbiter returned." Sighing, he stood to pace slightly. "And now they're both missing."

"How do you know?"

"Why else would you four have come here?" he replied. "And with a note from Leader, who had been one of the people from the UNSC that I was able to meet with relatively freely."

Standing as well, Aidon leaned over his mother to kiss her cheek. "There are things going on that I'm not a part of, aren't there? Things that started a long while ago."

John looked at his adopted son mournfully, whose smile never failed. The Spartan sighed again. "Aidon . . ."

"No, Dad, really, don't worry about it. I have to get back to college and finish a paper." He grinned. "Besides. Now I don't feel as if I'm missing out on something. Just knowing that I have more siblings is great. And that two of them are Elite are even better." He stopped. "Wait. Who's this 'Leader' you just spoke of?"

The Spartan's face finally lifted into a smile. "Your Alien Relations professor."

"Him!"

"I've known him for years. Why else do you think you got into that college? Not by your grades."

Aidon flushed crimson, rubbing at his neck in embarrassment. "I'm pulling math up, I promise, Dad."

"Better be. Go on, get."

"See you." He smiled at his adopted sister's biological and Elite siblings, then left.

Miranda looked over at her husband. "So. You have that look on your face again."

John sat again, not lying. "I know."

"You wish you were younger."

"So do you, but I'm not saying anything about it." He looked at the kids, ideas forming in his head, but he discarded them. They were human, Elite, nothing more. Not Spartan.

That's not true, his mind argued. They're born Spartan.

He rubbed at his face, coming to a conclusion. "Miranda, call Aidon, tell him that we're going back to Washington. I have a lengthy argument to bring up with ONI, and they will hear me out."

"Your old dress uniform is in the downstairs closet," she replied, smiling, looking at the kids, then back at her husband before going back up to their bedroom. "I'm going to stay here and rest up before I'm well enough to follow."

He nodded, disappearing down the stairs to the basement. Pandora looked at her identical twin again, who smiled and said, "So we're twins."

"And I thought that one of you was bad enough," Sibilee growled.

Pandora threw a coaster at his head, hearing John and Yukae's laughter. A deeper chuckle came up from the basement, and she felt her face reflect the wistfulness her soul felt. Her bright blue eyes connected with her . . . her twin's, and she asked, "Phaedra, what's he like?"

"Kind, fair, loving . . . He's a good dad. He always cares, and he's always been there for me." She shook her head. "But I never knew that he was the Master Chief. I mean, I've heard people calling him 'Chief' from time to time, and I knew he was in the military, so I assumed that it was just something that he picked up from the battlefield." Her face lit up again. "What's . . ." It fell again, and she sniffed.

John Orion embraced his sister, smiling. "Mom is amazing. She's exactly like your dad. Our dad. Whatever." He blinked. "Oh, but she's obviously more feminine."

That got a small laugh out of Phaedra, and she looked at him. "What does she . . . what does she look like? I never paid any attention to anything military. I'm sorry. I didn't know I was adopted until today."

"Ah, don't worry about it. You never had reason to." Pandora pulled out a small picture of Willow out. It was from when they were celebrating their seventeenth birthday, and had gotten a picture of their family over the rather large cake. "That's her. We got her hair. That one there is our adopted father. Some call him Dragon, but he's more widely known as either Arbiter or Torilian Vouzaku'amee."

Aidon burst into the room, reaching for his forgotten backpack, stopping at the mention of that name. His face lit up. "You know the Arbiter?"

Sibilee and Yukae glanced at each other before chorusing, "He's our father."

Aidon swore colorfully, if softly. He grinned. "I met him once or twice, I think, but . . ." He blinked at Pandora, who as digging through photos again. Taking and collecting pictures was one of her hobbies. After finding the hidden stash in their parent's bedroom, she had added them in. Aidon blinked, leaning closer. "What are you doing?"

Finding the right one, she smiled and pulled it out, handing it to him. "Here, keep this one. I have another at home. You met Arbiter many times as a kid."

Aidon stared at the picture. That was him, all right. He had seen many pictures of himself as a child, as well as many of the Arbiter, having done a lengthy report upon the Sangheili for Alien Relations. But never would he have guessed that there would ever be a picture with both himself and the Arbiter together. And him perched high up on the alien's shoulders, no doubt, reaching down to a younger version of his mother and a red-haired, rather pregnant woman beside her. The women were on the right side of the photo, Arbiter and Aidon on the left. In the background were Johnson and Leader, both arguing about something, by their postures, but between them and the women was the man he called his father, warily watching whoever was taking the picture.

John the elder looked over Aidon's shoulder. "I remember that one being taken." His face fell again. "I wish that I could have shown it to you before, but . . ." He sighed deeply. "Orders were orders. I wasn't supposed to associate at all with the UNSC or anyone in it. I wasn't supposed to tell you anything, and I had to obey that. I hope that you'll get to meet Arbiter again."

"He will," the boy triplet said, his face solemn. "I'm not letting the Covenant keep him and Mom. We're getting them back, and I'll do anything to get that done."

The Spartan looked at his son. He'd seen pictures of himself when he was seventeen. He looked like this. He took on anything that came at him, and won. He'd never lose, never back down, and most certainly never would give up. Nodding, the man replied, "That's what's going to get them home." He aimed his now-steely eyes at Aidon, and Miranda's son saw the Master Chief for the first time. "Your mother's staying here until she's over the cold. I'm going in to DC with these five."

"Phaedra's going, too?" Aidon asked, worried. "She . . ."

"She's my daughter. She wants to meet her birth mother." He cast his eyes to one side, seeing how Aidon was starting to become distressed. There was nothing he could do, however, about the scowl he wore. "And she doesn't know this, but she's been training. Not all soldiers are muscle-bound." His eyes met Aidon's again. "Keep an eye on your mother. When she feels well enough, she might want to wrap her fingers around some throats in ONI. Don't get in her way when she gets to that point."

"Gotcha, old man," Aidon replied. He looked at Phaedra. "Fay-fay, you keep safe, you hear me?"

Smiling at his old nick-name for her, Phaedra nodded, but John the younger replied for her. "She has two other siblings and two Elites to watch her back. We're not going to let her down."

Aidon nodded, leaving them. The Master Chief looked at the five fresh faces, his parade uniform in a bag at his side, pictures of before his "civilian" life with him. He planned upon letting the triplets look at them on the way to the old DC. And nodded. "Let's get back there, see if they've come to the same conclusion that we have."

The kids were ready, and went instantly out the front door. Miranda came back out to John, leaning into his embrace, her face against muscles that never seemed to lose their tone with age. Sighing through his shirt, she whispered, "Keep them safe."

"They're my children. I won't let anything harm them."

Her eyes locked upon his. "And don't you get into trouble, either."

"I'll try. There's not much I can do against a direct order. I'm still in service."

"Keep safe, please. Come back home."

Closing his eyes, nodding, John softly, if ardently, kissed his wife once, then turned before he could look at her face again. He wouldn't leave if he did.