Hello is anyone out there? Hey, you there, yes, you! I recognize you from last chapter. OMG someone came back.

Ok, first things first, notes. Anything I can, I get from the Halo books and games, so for those of you who haven't read the books; 1) the covenant (elites and grunts at least) can speak some English, 2) the books paint the area where Kara's from (the edge of human controlled space near the beginning of the covenant-human war) as a very hostile place, so it's not to much of a stretch to assume that it's a grow up fast environment. (BTW she's more of a conscript than an actual long term trained solder) Thanks go out to Studley for bringing that up.

Well, since you took time out of your "busy" schedule to read this I might as well get to it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo; if I did I would be very, very rich. Nor do I own any of the related characters, locations, etc. I do own my OCs, Kara (and all related peoples) and Drek'nari, preciousssssssssss.

Sangheili- Elites (do I really need to repeat these?)

Unggoy- Grunts

Fleet Master- Admiral

Languages

Human-plain text

Covenant-Italic text

Betrayal

MC: 0600 Hours, September 3, 2537

Nexus V, Aboard Covenant Cruiser Ascendant Justice

Kara swam through a sea of darkness. Her thoughts conjured images in the blackness…her father, dead at the end of an Elite's sword, Raul throwing himself at the charging Elites, screaming for her to run. She shuddered in the darkness, unable to stem the flow of those memories. She stood before her mother saying she would fight too. Holding the report that said her mother had died to Covenant artillery. She ran through the darkness trying to escape the images, the memories, the pain. Ahead of her a figure emerged from the darkness.

Her mother stood before her, just as she remembered her the day she had left. "You should have been there Kara. I would have lived if you had been there." Her mother said sounding sad and something else. Disappointed?

"What could I have done? I couldn't have done anything. I would have died too!" Kara screamed.

"You could have been there," her mother said simply before fading back into the dark. Another figure came forward hunched over in pain, blood dripping from the wound in its chest. She tried to close her eyes against the sight, but here she could not, again she felt the tears trickle down her face.

"Help me…" her father moaned, the elite's sword still protruding from his chest.

"I can't, I can't help you any more." She whispered fighting back the sobs that threatened to consume her. "You died, I saw you, why can't you leave me alone!" she cried, tears blurring her vision. When the figure spoke again a new voice met her ears, one that she had hoped would not come.

"You betrayed us." Raul's voice washed over her, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. "We fought and died to protect our homes, our friends…to protect YOU! But you didn't die. You gave up, you joined them! You're no better then they are." He drew a pistol and pointed it at her. "And now you'll die like them."

"No!" She screamed and looked around for someone, anyone to help her. Then she noticed her hands…they had changed. She gasped as she realized that they were the scaly hands of an elite. Even as she watched, they gripped a plasma rifle and pulled the trigger. Raul screamed as the bolt of plasma burned his face off. Kara screamed to match, sobbing she ran. "I'm sorry Raul, I'm so sorry…" As she ran, a foul laughter rose out of the distance.

Suddenly she stopped. Unable to move forward, she turned to face the source of the laughter. The elite from that afternoon stood there, clutching his sword and what could have been a smile on his face. "Don't worry, they can never hurt you again." He said smoothly. "Because now…you're mine," he reached towards her. "And now, I will teach you fear." Kara screamed as his blade inched closer to her throat. She couldn't move, all she could do was watch.

"Is it all right?" a voice broke through the fog, she could not understand it but she could hear it. Light flooded the darkness and more voices began to filter through.

"Not our problem. Sangheili says watch, we watch, but unless Sangheili says touch we don't touch."

The elite began to fade as Kara awoke. "You can't run forever! We will catch you!" it shrieked before fading entirely.

She opened her eyes slowly; the chamber was dark now. She turned her head to see three stocky figures in the room. Two of the grunts sat near the door facing a third who was standing near the bunk with it's back to her; they were talking. "You sure, what if it is hurt, what then." The first grunt said sounding concerned.

"It's not hurt, it would be bleeding if it was hurt. It may be an alien but it still bleeds." The second countered. The third Grunt, who had been silent until now, looked at her and spoke up.

"I think it's awake." The other two jumped at this and looked at her. They all looked nervous now.

"Are you alright?" The second Grunt asked, moving a step closer and looked proud of his courage.

"Yes." Kara replied after a minute. "So, where's the big guy?" The Grunts looked shocked that she was talking to them and wasn't trying to kill them.

"Sangheili left, went to get something. Left us in charge, told us to watch you." The quiet one supplied after a minute.

"When will he be back?" The grunts made a strange motion slightly similar to a shrug; she guessed that meant they didn't know. The room settled into an uncomfortable silence, as both parties look uneasily at the others. As she sat there a thought rose to the surface of her mind from the ashes of her nightmare.

"They killed her." A voice hissed in the back of her head. "These grunts were the ones. They killed Kelly." As the words slid over her slick and sickly like rancid oil a vision of Kelly running for her life filled her mind. It had been during the first attacks, they had run from a swarm of grunts. Kelly hadn't made it. "Kill them, kill them all for us." The voice hissed, it sounded like Kelly's. Kara fought the vision down into the depths of her mind, banishing the voice with it. No, she thought, she wouldn't slip back into her nightmare now that she was awake.

The silence dragged on until the tension was palpable. Finally the door hissed open and Drek'nari stepped in side carrying a tray of something. Those eyes saw everything in an instant; Kara suppressed a shudder as they passed over her. "Out." He said suddenly gesturing to the door, "And remember what I said about silence." The three grunts hurried out as Drek'nari pulled the strange chair from the desk over to the bed. He sat down, handing her the tray. "You need to eat." Kara glanced at the food on the tray; she thought she could pick out some of the things there. There were what appeared blue mushrooms and some type of meat.

"What's that?" She said pointing to the meat.

"Roth, they're native to my home planet."

Kara looked at the utensils and found that they weren't all that different from the ones she had grown up using. Once she realized this it wasn't hard to puzzle out how to use them, she began to eat using the silence to think of what she needed to know. Drek'nari beat her to the punch however, and breached the silence with the last thing on her mind. "You were restless last night. Did you dream of your family?" Kara continued to eat in silence for a moment longer, collecting her thoughts on the matter. She had dreamed of her family, but how much could she afford to tell him? Quickly she discarded this train of thought, she was thinking of him as an opponent. Whatever her standing with him, she was stuck here until these Prophets decided her fate, so she'd better try to make some friends…or at least some allies.

"Yes, I did." She would stick to the truth, but the bare truth unless he asked for more. Thankfully however he let it stand at that; Drek'nari wasn't one to pry into others feelings; especially grief. That was something you had to deal with on your own.

When he said nothing more, Kara decided it was time to learn something. "Why am I here?" Drek'nari was silent, this human, this Kara had a talent for striking the heart of a matter, but he knew what he would say. Last night he had thought on just this question, knowing it would come and knowing his answer must be right the first time. He would not get a second chance. To this end he too had chosen the truth, the whole truth, as far as he knew it.

"Fleet Master Fulsamee believes you are strong enough to join the Covenant. He has always thought highly of his opponents. You are in my care because someone must teach you what you will need to know if you are to succeed in gaining the Prophets favor, as he believes you can. Fulsamee will be very busy even obtaining a meeting with the High Prophet of Truth. That is why I will train you instead of him." There, it was out, all that he knew she knew. He watched as she digested the information, he could see the thoughts swirling in her eyes. Answers being put to questions, other information coming together like peaces of puzzle. Drek'nari had often been told by his subordinates that they could see plans forming in his eyes, that they knew when he understood everything there was to understand, just by the way his eyes looked. He wondered if this is what they meant. At last the shifting stopped and he knew she had cataloged and analyzed what she knew, and that she was going to find out more, even if it killed him.

"What do you believe?" The question startled him; he had not prepared for something like this. It had never occurred to him that his opinion on the situation mattered. He was just a piece on the Sava board 1, what did it matter if a soldier didn't agree with a move made by the player; it didn't have a choice. What was his opinion, what did he believe? Orna' was a friend, a good friend, but he was also Drek'nari's superior. Until now he had followed that superiors orders because that was his duty, but what did Drek'nari Zoultel, long time friend of Orna' Fulsamee, think of his friends actions and the possible consequences of those actions?

"I don't know." That was all there was to say, he didn't know, and right then he didn't care that this human had just shaken him as he hadn't been shaken in a great many years. Nor did he care that the human knew it, or that he was openly showing a weakness that would have proven fatal in almost any other situation with this same human. To his immense surprise Kara fell silent. She really did want his opinion, he realized.

After this revelation, it didn't take Drek'nari long to pick out what his opinion was. It had been forming slowly over the last few hours, now it crystallized and he knew exactly what he thought. "I think that Orna' is right. You're smart; a lot smarter than most Sangheili I've worked with. If you were half as fast and a fourth as strong, you would outshine 80 of the Sangheili on this ship."

She nodded, taking the compliment in stride. Drek'nari couldn't tell if she trusted him or if she just understood how much she needed them, or maybe she already realized how much Orna' needed her now as well. Either way, she pressed on, moving to the question that should have come after the first. "What will you teach me? What is it that I need to know to succeed with the Prophets?" Her tone was different than before. Before it had been dark, serious. Now it was lighter and filled with something else. Relief? Satisfaction?

"I will teach you language, etiquette, and our customs. When you join the Covenant, many will find it difficult to place you with any caste. That's because our castes are based greatly on race. You are human; you are the enemy and most will treat you that way, as a prisoner of war, unless you show them that you are otherwise. For that reason, before anyone else can know of you, I will teach you to show them something different, something they know how to react to. I will teach you to be Sangheili."

1-2-3

1 Sava- this is a reference to the War of the Spider Queen series. Sava is a drow (if you don't understand don't worry) game much like chess but with a web shaped board and slightly different rules. Soldier is the equivalent of a pawn.

Well there it is Chapter 2. R&R, and please be nice.