12. Good Byes and Apologies

**Good Byes and Apologies**

The Sangheili were all in a fit of rage, the destruction of The Long Night of Solace, the death of their brethren due to the work of a demon, and now the intervention of the Jiralhanae was the last straw. However, slouching in the corner, resting her head against the bulkhead of the Phantom was Shress, who had her own battle going on in her head.

Why? The question she kept asking herself, Why, why, why, why did you do that!? She demanded answers but her brain wasn't saying anything.

She was taken completely off guard by Michael's sudden show of affection. When he hugged her she felt shocked and impromptu, but what made her worry was the strange feeling that rose within her, a feeling that made her put her arms around the human and return the embrace. Then came the frightening part, she didn't like the hug; she loved it.

For the first time in a long time she had felt safe. She felt safe within a human's arms, reassured and even happy. His scent was so alien, yet she longed for it, the strange aroma of something that smells like damp soil and the firm odor that only belongs to a male. In that moment she just wanted to hide, to run away from the Covenant, to feel safe, so without her realizing it, she buried her head into Michael's neck. In that instant, for the first time in fact, she relied on the sturdiness of a male. She was sure he would have let go of her for nuzzling him, or be upset with her, but the fact that he didn't just sparked great interest within her.

Why didn't he pull away? Or say something? Was it possible that he enjoyed it almost as much as I did?

Unknowingly, her hand moves to the small satchel on her belt and soon she feels her fingers playing with Michael's necklace. She let this continue for a unit before she withdrew her hand. For some reason, the simple contact with Michael's necklace has made her feel a whole lot better.

Her thinking was interrupted when she heard the pilot speak, "Reviving Faith, we are on final approach, are we clear to land?"

"You are clear brother," was the reply from the transmitter.

Shress tries to calm herself, but panic began to take over. She is about to reenter the Covenant, now with a serious act of heresy hanging over her head. The Phantom pilot was already suspicious of Shress's survival; he saw her staying behind on the corvette and didn't believe her story when she claims she escaped in a landing pod when no one else has. To make matters worse they were about to dock on the Reviving Faith, the Prophet of Regret's personal flag ship.

She was starting to regret turning down Michael's offer and wish she was anywhere but here, among the Covenant. As she waited for the ship to dock she began to wonder where her human friend is now.

**Six POV**

Six was enveloped in silence as the Pelican flew him to his next objective. He tries to take a nap but couldn't, adrenaline has been pumping through his veins for what felt like days now, which was true. He went from raiding an alien ship in space, to tumbling out of the sky, to engaged in brutal warfare with a now fully armed and fully equipped Covenant army in less than forty eight hours. The fact that Brutes were now involved wasn't helping at all.

Six lets out a sigh and glances out of the rear porthole of the Pelican. It was a sad sight. He was flying well over the skyscrapers but that was the scary part; there were only skyscrapers, anything less than fifty feet off the ground was shrouded in smoke and dust. The dark sky and the setting sun added a frightening effect to the land, as if the sky was now being set on fire. He watches as one large building, a bank from the looks of it, shakes before collapsing, causing another cloud of destruction to rise.

For an odd reason, Six felt the scene matched the mood he was feeling at the moment.

The death of Jorge, the failure in stopping the Covenant from arriving and the thousands of civilians that are dead or dying weighed heavily on him. Yet as he looks to the floor of the Pelican, he knows there is something else that is occupying his mind; Shress.

This was the second time they have parted after he has offered her to come with him and again she refused. She had her reasons, and they were sound by all accounts, but he still didn't like it. Especially now, with the newly arrived covenant fleet, he wonders how long their friendship will last and if the Covenant will notice Shress's strange activities; will it be possible for the aliens to learn of their friendship?

He was starting to wish more than ever that he gave her his radio instead of his tags; he just realized they still haven't created a method of communicating with each other.

His mind soon turns to the hug they had shared nearly an hour ago. He was still freaking out about it, he has yet to learn what made him place his arms around the Sangheili and why his insides felt the way they did when he was close to her. I need to get to a doctor. was his primary thinking; he had no idea if this is some sort of poisoning or something else entirely.

"Sir," the Pelican pilot suddenly called on his comms, "We are approaching the RV point."

Six simply said, "Roger," before standing and shouldering his assault rifle.

Soon they came swooping in over an apartment building, but Six can see by the UNSC personnel and the army grade equipment that it has been converted into an outpost. Without the Pelican stopping, Six steps forwards and jumps off the aircraft, landing on the rooftop with little effort.

As he stands, he sees a familiar figure walking towards him and for a moment Six felt his gut twist with anxiety. Walking towards him was Carter, decked out in his MJOLNIR armor, complete with a rifle on his back. The two Spartans assess each other before Carter walks forward.

Six has dreaded this moment all day; he has no idea what to say to Carter. He promised the commander that he would ensure Jorge would survive, what was he going to say, how is Carter going to react when he learns Jorge sacrificed himself and Six only watched?

When Carter walks in front of him, Six takes a deep breath and is about to speak, when Carter drapes an arm around him and pulls Six towards a ramp, leading to the helipad on the very top of the building.

"Good to see you Six," Carter said in a strange voice, as if the Spartan couldn't tell whether he was proud or sad, "Glad to see that OP went well…up until the end that is."

Six could only nod in agreement. Carter knew Jorge was gone, but he doesn't know the details. Six took a deep breath and began to say, "Sir, I'm sorry, Jorge, he-"

Carter pats Six on the back and says, "Sorry Six, but there's no time for storytelling," and nods in front of him.

Six followed his gaze and saw a single Falcon in front of them, with two Marines climbing all over it, prepping it for takeoff and reloading the weapon systems.

Six looks to Carter who simply says, "Kat needs your help, Covenant have set up jammers all over the city, its preventing us from hailing anyone outside of Covenant controlled space," Six detected a hint of disgust at the end of the sentence, "So she's going to provide you coordinates to the jammers and you're going to take them out."

He looks to the Falcon and says, "Sorry Six, but this is all we have, all Sparrow Hawks and Hornets are providing CASEVACS and running OPs, along with the rest of Noble team and the ODSTs."

Six nods again, he'll make it work, despite the fact that he doesn't feel up to being in charge again, he is determined to do all he can to keep these troopers alive.

He is about to walk forward when Carter lays a hand on Six's shoulder and speaks quietly even though they are still speaking on a private channel, as if he was afraid someone was listening in, "Have you gotten any more Intel from that informant?"

Again Six shakes his head, suddenly feeling too miserable to speak, and truth be told, he was trying to save some of his pride; it would be humiliating to admit to Carter he has forgotten to find a way to speak to Shress again.

Carter responds, "It doesn't matter, at least now we have a little more hope now than we did a few years ago," despite the words, Carter didn't sound like he believes in what he was saying.

Six only nods to this and walks away, suddenly wanting to be back in battle, a place where, ironically, he can escape the troubles his mind is causing him.

"It's good to have you back lieutenant," Carter adds as an afterthought.

Six stops, turns to face Carter and says, "Sorry I came alone."

"Make him proud," Carter said before walking off.

Six turns to his Falcon and walks forward. Seeing the advancing Spartan, the two Marines jump in the back of the vehicle and take up positions behind the mounted machine guns hanging on either side of the Falcon. Six briefly nods to one Marine positioned on the right side of the Falcon before jumping into the pilot seat of the aircraft and starts the rotors.

The Falcon was of the helicopter family, one of the few vehicles Six found easy to pilot. He checks to make sure he has full power, everything was fueled up and weapons systems are fully loaded. Steadily he began raising the bird's altitude until they were hovering a few feet in the air. Six pushes the stick forward and soon they are flying over the decimated city.

Once he was confident that they could maintain their altitude, he got on his comms, "Kat, it's Six, Carter told me there's some jammers you need me to destroy."

"Copy Six," came Kat's voice over the frequency, "Sending you the coordinates now."

Almost instantly a blue marker appeared on Six's HUD, "Coordinates received, heading to objective."

"Roger that Lieutenant, good hunting."

**Shress POV**

Shress was exhausted by the day's events. Her wounds are now fully healed, but an overwhelming tiredness is threatening to take her over, so she was quick to perform her duties.

She went to the bridge and made her presence known. She was glad to see the Prophet was nowhere in sight and began talking to one of the technicians, requesting for information on her legion. She was dismayed to learn they are still on the human held planet but was reassured that they will return soon. As she was finishing her business the Shipmaster took notice of her and walked over.

"Zealot," he said, though she noticed there was a sort of edge to his voice, as if it pained him to say the word.

"Yes Shipmaster," she returns, trying to hide the tiredness in her voice.

"The Prophet has requested an audience with you, do you not remember?" It was obvious that he too, believed females were too dumb to serve.

Shress retains a growl before saying, "I'm much too tired to appear before the Prophet. If you could explain this to him-"

She is interrupted when the shipmaster snarls at her, "Just because you lack proper sleep, female, doesn't mean you can defy the orders of a Prophet."

Shress feels her own rage boiling and challenges, "I've been fighting demons, surviving the destruction of our ships and been fighting on the front lines for days, whereas you, shipmaster, have been sitting on this ship doing nothing like a coward."

The Shipmaster lets out a roar, unhooks his energy sword and activates it. Shress jumps back and unclips her twin blades, taking one in each hand and activates them as well. The entire deck becomes deathly silent as Sangheili and Unggoy alike watch in horrid fascination at what would be a deadly fight.

Slowly the two combatants begin to circle one another, like the predators that inhabit their world. The Shipmaster sported only one sword while Shress wielded two, but she knew he was a skilled warrior to have been able to rise to the rank of Shipmaster. His golden armor had the same strength as Shress's crimson one, they would have to batter away at each other in order to do damage to one or the other.

Finally the Shipmaster ceases his movement and Shress stops as well. They stared at one another, daring the other to move. Finally the Shipmaster roars and leaps forward. Shress responds in kind. The Shipmaster's blade went low to slice Shress's belly while her swords were criss-crossed to slash open the Shipmaster's armor.

"Stop, both of you!" A withered yet strong voice commands.

The two Sangheilis froze, both recognizing the voice. They let their weapons drop to the ground before following suit in a bow. All throughout the deck, the other occupants lower their heads respectfully as the speaker enters the room.

Floating in a hover chair, rising off the ground by a unit was the Prophet of Regret himself. He was old, yet he was still able to hold himself up high, proudly supporting the ceremonial crown place on his head. His small body was encased in ancient holy garments that were rumored to have been based on the Forerunner's design decorating High Charity. Flanking the Prophet's hover chair are two of his elite Sangheili honor guards, holding up energy spears, with their bodies adorn in the highly honored colors of red and gold.

Slowly, the Prophet guides his miniature hover vehicle forward, using his long boney fingers to control it.

As they approached, Shress feels her body beginning to shiver as she realizes the moment she has dreaded has arrived. She, like the other warriors of her race, has yearned to seek an audience with one of the holy Prophets, but that has changed for Shress. She now knows that fighting the humans was wrong, and it was the Prophets who have given the order to wage war against humanity. Now she was about to face Regret, the military leader of the Covenant himself, the one who was the seer of the other Prophets, and the one who is the most notorious when it comes to punishing heretics.

Her cowering increases upon remembering the tales she has grown up listening to. She thought of the stories of how the Prophets can see into the future. How they can give unimaginable rewards to those most faithful to their cause. And how they enjoy butchering any poor fool who denies their teachings. She wishes more than ever now that she has never returned, but it was too late, for Regret pauses right in front of her.

She keeps her head lowered and tries to quell her fear. She has no idea how long the silence lasted before the Prophet finally spoke, "Rise, my child."

Out of the corner of her eye, Shress saw the Shipmaster getting back on his feet when Regret spoke again, "Not you."

The Shipmaster froze, most likely out of shock, before bending down again. Realizing she was the one that the Prophet wanted to stand, Shress gulped before slowly rising to her feet, and was careful to keep her eyes focused on her feet. It was custom for a female not to look a male in the eye as if they were equals, she was not sure if the Prophets follow the same system, but Shress wasn't willing to take that risk.

"What is your name, my child?" Regret's voice was now barely a whisper, but it sent chills down her spine just listening to him.

She gulps before answering, "Shress La'Vdamee, high Prophet."

There was a moment of quiet before the voice said, "Raise your head."

Shress slowly raises her head and looks at the Prophet. They were almost eye to eye, but Regret's hover chair gave him more purchase, forcing her to look up into his dark eyes. His brown grey skin was sagging and his pointed teeth mixed with his dark eyes gave him an appearance more threatening than the assurance of a messenger of the gods.

She felt his eyes scanning her, learning everything from her before returning his gaze back to her eyes. She represses a shiver as she gazes into them; they were like two deep holes in the ground, dark, mysterious and deadly.

Regret breaks eye contact, spins his chair around and begins to float away again, but calls behind him, "Walk with me Zealot." Shress timidly follows, picking up her fallen weapons as she went and trying to keep a reasonable distance between the Prophet and herself. They walk (or in Regret's case, float) out of the command deck and begin walking down the corridor.

"Tell me my child," Regret begins talking again, "I've been informed you desire nothing more than to prove your worth to the Covenant, is that correct?"

Shress tries her best to keep the tremor out of her voice, "Yes sire, this has always been my dream since I was young."

Regret nods before saying, "Is it because you wish to keep your family's warrior tradition alive or simply for your own self-interest?"

Shress is slightly unsettled when the questions become personal, but she tries her best to answer, "Yes and no sire, I wish to keep my family heritage alive, but I also wish to be a warrior to…to ensure I'm not courted."

Regret chuckles at this, "You wish to keep your family lineage alive and yet you refuse to give birth to your future children?"

Now she was on the verge of letting her cowering show, did he not know of her condition? It has been a family secret, there was no way he could know, but she tries her best to humor the Prophet.

"When you say it that way it does seem odd, but I wish not to be perused at the moment, at least not until I ensure my family name is to be remembered for generations to come." Shress tries to keep the bitter note out of her voice, with her new alliance with Michael, ensuring her family name to be remembered is now just a dream, if she is ever discovered for her heresy, then her name will be dishonored with no way for her family to ever redeem themselves.

Regret suddenly glances at Shress, causing her to panic. Does he know what she is thinking? Was it true that the Prophets can read the minds of mere mortals?

"I've been told you have had numerous encounters with…the demons," he hisses in a cursive manner.

Oh Forerunners, Shress thought to herself, Does he know? Why else would he bring that specific subject up?

Shress responds in an even voice, "Yes Prophet, the demons have been numerous and they have become a nuisance whenever we conduct our military operations."

Regret stops his chair and now turns his full attention to Shress as he asks, "And do you believe the demons should all be exterminated from this, and every other world?"

He knows, the small voice kept repeating within Shress's head, He knows about Michael, why else would he be asking these sorts of questions?

"Well," Shress begins, "To be truthful, sire, since the demons are allies of the humans, don't you think we could offer them the allegiance of the Covenant to them? Having them as allies can be very useful."

Regret eyes bulge as he says, "Most certainly not!" he leans in close as he spoke in the same deathly whispery voice again, "My child, you do not know what you are asking. It is through the divine power of the gods that I was enabled to glimpse what lies beneath that accursed armor. There is no creature within that metal shell worth bargaining with, only monsters, beasts that humans have created to fight for them, demons with no consciousness, no soul, and no mercy." His voice took on one of an icy cold wrath, "They must all be exterminated, they are too dangerous to be left alive and that, my child, is why we do not negotiate with such monstrosities, do you understand?"

Shress remains silent as she took in the revelation, what Michael has said is true; the Prophets, their supposed link to the gods…were liars. She had personally seen demons up close and saw them take off their armor. They were no monsters, but humans, prepared to defend their homeland as readily as any Sangheili would be. Is this why they weren't allowed to study the human race, because if they did, the Covenant would realize the Prophets are using them?

Shress felt very exposed at the moment. She wanted to run, to hide, to leave the Covenant and never return. But for the moment she was stuck, with one of the Covenant's main leaders standing in front of her.

She then realizes Regret was waiting for her to answer, so she lowers her head and says, "Yes Prophet, I understand, the demons must all die."

She looks up and her fear increases tenfold; Regret was smiling at her.

"Good my child, now follow me, there is one last thing for you to do." With that he begins floating back to the main deck, with a terrified Shress following.

**Six POV **

The plasma turrets fired their volley in one last attempt to defend their objective but the powerful cannons of the Falcon literally blew them away. With the small landing pad now clear, Noble Six lowers the aircraft onto the protruding piece of metal poking from the side of a tech design building, the place where the Covenant was protecting their last jamming device.

Six jumps out of the pilot seat and unsling his rifle. Behind him he heard the Marines dismounting as well but Six said, "Stay and protect the Falcon Marines."

One of the Marines, a woman, groans and says, "But sir, you had us sit out on the last two engagements."

Six turns to face her. Unknown to the Marine, he was smiling underneath his helmet; her spunk reminds the Spartan of the same determination that Shress possesses. With that in mind, Six then said, "Sorry Marine, but I need to make this quick, keep our getaway vehicle running," he says rather jokingly.

The Marines just lower their heads and resume their positions behind the two mounted guns on the Falcon. Six knew the Marines wanted some action, he wasn't trying to be a glory hound, but he was determined not to let these Marines fall like the pilots under his command back on the Long Night of Solace. On that note, Six made his way into the skyscraper.

Six moves slowly into the tower, mindful of his surroundings. There were two fountains that created a man-made waterfall on either side of a large staircase in front of Six. Station in front of the stairs was a large holo-projector, showing the latest model of a UNSC frigate. Six passes the ghostly green image and makes his way to the back of the room where two elevators are waiting.

He was almost to the stairs when the trap was sprung. On either side of the Spartan, a wave of destruction was released. Out of nowhere, crystal spikes flew towards him, energy beams cut through the air and the bright green bolts of energy rods followed suit. They all hit their target at once and Noble Six was consumed in an explosive display of colors.

Sure of their victories, the two Jackals, Grunts and Brutes came out of their hiding places to see what was left of the Spartan. They all let out cries of amazement to see the form of Noble Six still whole, crouch in a feeble position. Noticing the attackers were now in the open, Six powers off his armor lock system. This caused a large flare to erupt, releasing the energy build up the plasma weapons had created, stunning and blinding the aliens.

As they grunt in pain, Six rolls backwards and comes back up throwing grenades to either side of the stairwell and blasting his assault rifle at the nearest Brute. The grenades erupt and easily consume the Grunts and Jackals, but the Brutes are still standing, save for one who Six has injured.

The Spartan was desperately trying to reload his weapon when the Brutes struck out again. The injured ape-like alien jumps forward, going "berserk." Six waits, anticipates the berserkers movements before jumping to the left of the rampaging monster. While in mid-air Six quickly removes his magnum, brings it up and fires without aiming at the uninjured brute. One bullet disposed of the shields, while the remaining five rounds blew their way into the alien's brain.

Six lands, rolls and comes up in a kneeling stance, this time taking out his rifle and scans for the remaining Brute. It wasn't long before the berserk creature made its way back to Six. The Spartan took aim and fired a full clip at the monster's head until it was completely obliterated. The body stumbles and falls to the floor skidding to a stop at the Spartans feet.

Satisfied that he pacified the area, Six turns and makes his way to the elevators. Surprisingly they are still in working order. Six enters the clear glass cart, clicks the holographic commands and soon he is speeding upwards. As he ascends, music begins to drift from the speakers, stunning the Spartan. Reach could be facing the end of its days, yet this small elevator in the corner of the world was still playing "flip" music. The strange event was unbelievable, which was amusing since humanity was under attack by aliens and one of their sole saviors was amazed that music was still playing.

Finally he reaches the top floor, the place where the jammer frequencies were being emitted. The doors open and Six quickly steps out and scans his surroundings.

The place has a sort of Asian Zen look to it. There are small artificial ponds built in the randomness of places, ramps led to upper levels where he can see mats on the floor and paper screens like the ones the ancient Japanese use for walls and doors were spread out all over the place.

What ruins the picture was again the evidence of war. There were bodies of Marines littered throughout the room Six is in, some on the floor, some against the wall and one body was hanging half on and half off a nearby ramp. Six shakes his head sadly before pushing forward. There is no time to mourn, he has to complete the mission.

His HUD was indicating the jammer is right in front of him, probably towards the back of the room. Six checks every nook and cranny, but found nothing, no sign of Covenant forces. The lack of hostile aliens was just as disturbing as the real things. The Marines sure didn't all drop dead by themselves, he knew the brutes didn't do this; they would have mauled the bodies. So if they didn't commit the massacre, then who did?

Six doesn't think much more of it when he finally reaches his objective. Before him sat the jammer; glowing purple with bright holographic images floating all around it in an eerie electric blue atmosphere. Now familiar with the Covenant device, Six walks forward and lays his hand on the primary console. The bright lights instantly die out and the blue aura fades away. That was when the second ambush was sprung.

It was as if Six switching off the device was the signal, for at that moment, an entire swarm of drones dropped down from the ceiling. The bug like aliens are a menace, they can tear any organic being to pieces and what made them worse, is that their talon like hands can easily grip and use plasma pistols. They also fight in swarms, easy to pick off with a rifle from a distance, but when they are in close quarters like right now. . . Six is glad he had an automatic weapon.

The Spartan started firing all around as he ran through the cloud of bugs. He felt the talons clawing at his armor, the flares every time his shield was hit by plasma and the occasional bump as a drone rams itself into Six's body. The only way Six could fight back against the cloud that has enveloped him was by shooting anywhere and everywhere until green bug blood splatters against his armor. He would also fight back by striking out at any poor creature that got in his way, hitting it with either a fist or a foot, whichever is more convenient.

Six stumbles, trips and runs through paper walls as his vision is blinded by the flustering activity of the bug like aliens. Against all odds, Six falls into the elevator car, still surrounded by bugs, Six finds the switch and presses the "down" button. The door wouldn't close since there was an occasional bug in the way of the closing door, forcing Six to swat them out of the way. Finally it was clear enough for the door to close and it began its descent back down.

Six took out his Magnum and shot the remaining drones that trapped themselves in the car with Six. Soon, the Spartan was ankle deep in alien corpses. As Six struggled to catch his breath, he heard the flip music was still playing. For some reason, sudden agitation fuels Six and he shoots the speaker, ceasing the music. He had enough surprises for one day.

The door opens and again, Six is slow as he steps out of the elevator, once sure that there are no more hostiles, once he knows the area is secure he sprints out of the building. He doesn't stop until he is back on the helipad and jumps in the cockpit of the Falcon.

"Good shooting in there?" asks one of the Marines.

Six shakes his head and says, "You have no idea."

He restarts the rotors and soon, they are back in the air. Once Six is sure they are as safe as they were going to get, he got on comms and radios in, "Kat, this is Six, last jammer neutralize, over."

"Roger that Six, RV back at Olympus-" there was a sudden explosion and Kat let out a sharp cry.

"Kat!" Six calls, "Kat, what's happening?"

He heard Noble Two cough before saying, "Six, we got an entire squadron of airborne Covenant assaulting Olympus Tower, we could really use some help."

Six punches the accelerators and quickly says, "On our way."

**Shress POV**

Shress nervously waits by the Prophet's side as the Shipmaster repositions the ship as Regret has instructed him to do. Shress glances nervously at the honor guards flanking her, their battle ready stance does little to reassure her that she isn't in trouble.

Finally the Shipmaster steps away from the main console, bows to Regret and says, "It is done sire, we are now positioned over the human city."

Human city? Wonders Shress, Is Regret planning on sending more troops to the ground?

"Excellent work Shipmaster Voro," the Prophet said, "Now power the cleansing beam."

At this everyone in the room looks to the Prophet in confusion. It was Voro who voiced their question.

"Now sire?" he asks in genuine confusion, "Shouldn't we contact Supreme Commander Vadamee and wait until the other ships are in position?"

Regret shook his head, "This isn't an ordinary planet Shipmaster, remember, the Navigator is buried on this world. We must be careful not to damage it. Which means this will have to be a precise cleansing maneuver."

Voro nods his head in understanding before turning back to the console and begins preparing the energy projector while barking orders to command the ground troops to evacuate the city.

The Prophet of Regret chuckles and turns to Shress, "New Alexandria," he says lightly, "Can you believe how primitive these humans name their cities Zealot?"

Shress opens and closes her mandibles, trying to speak, but couldn't. New Alexandria; the place where she last saw Michael. Was this all a coincidence as Michael would call it, or could the Prophet really read minds and exploit the thinkers' thoughts? As much as she wants to deny it, it just seems too much to accept, Regret wants to glass a city, yet out of all of them he randomly chooses the one where Michael was in; it just seems impossible.

Soon fear and anxiety begin to build as she realizes her human friend was in danger and was about to feel the true power of the Covenant, something that few beings could ever survive. Her heart is beating faster than normal and her throat suddenly feels dry as she realizes she was about to witness Michael's death.

Voro turns to the Prophet and says, "We are now directly over the city sire, and the beam has been prepared, shall we commence?"

Then, to everyone's astonishment, Regret shook his head, "I'm sorry Shipmaster, I know you enjoy destroying the heretics, but today, I've decided to have the Zealot here," he gestures to Shress, "Destroy our enemies."

Shress feels as if her whole world is collapsing around her. Not only was she going to lose Michael, she was to be the one to kill him.

She looked to the Prophet and saw that he was smiling at her again. He knows she thought, somehow he knows and now he's going to make me suffer for it by having me kill my friend.

"Prophet," she says in what she hopes was a confident voice, "You honor me with your words, but I cannot possibly deprive the shipmaster from the glory he rightfully deserves."

Out of the corner of her eye, Shress saw Shipmaster Voro's eyes widen, he didn't expect the woman he almost dueled to offer him an opportunity for glory that she would most likely never receive again.

Regret shakes his head, "No my child, you shall be the one to cleanse this land," he leans close to her again and says, "You did say you are willing to wipe out the demons, did you not?"

So he does know that Michael is in the city. Shress was now feeling as if she was about to gut out her own heart as she slowly nods.

Regret gestures to the console, "Then take your place and ensure your family name will be remembered for generations to come."

**Six POV**

Six blasts away at the Phantom until it finally explodes while the Marines fire at the incoming Banshees trying to flank them. The Spartan pulls hard on the stick and twirls the Falcon around until they are at a better angle and continues shooting down the enemy aircraft.

But there were simply too many, dozens of Phantoms and twice as many Banshees have surrounded Olympus Tower and are now laying siege to it.

The Falcon has already taken a beating, plasma burns into the steel of the helicopter as the humans put up a valiant fight, but they were simply getting overwhelmed. As Six was thinking this, a line of plasma shot out of nowhere and hit the blast shields of the cockpit, burning away the glass.

"Carter!" Six desperately calls, "We aren't going to last much longer out here, we need support, now!"

"Sorry Six," Carter reply, "We don't have any more birds to spare, we can't-"

Suddenly the shooting stops. Six looks around and sees that the Covenant forces are now retreating; the Phantoms and the Banshees are flying away from the tower at a rather fast speed. Behind him, Six could hear the two Marines have stopped shooting as well, probably to gawk at the sight of the withdrawing Covenant forces.

First one, then two, then what seems like every human being on Reach begins cheering, "We're alive!" "We've won," "Look at them run!" "oorah!". However Six nor the rest of Noble team didn't join in, they were all thinking the same thing.

The Covenant had them; they were done for, so why did they retreat?

Six lands the Falcon on Olympus tower and hops out. He glances behind him and sees that the Marines follow suit, both still grinning ear to ear.

"Find your original squads and report in," he orders them.

The two Marines snap a salute, replies with, "Yes sir!" before taking off.

Six shakes his head and walks down the hallway of the temporary field office of Naval Intelligence. He should be happy; he completed his personal goal and kept his two Marines alive and got the mission done. Yet what stops him from celebrating was the age old question he's been asking himself over and over again; what was the Covenant up to?

He enters a room that is designated as "pent house" and is welcomed with a familiar sight. Inside was Noble Team. Jun was playing sniper as usual, his helmet was off and he was looking through some binoculars. Emile sat near the back of the room, sharpening his knife; his ritual whenever he got bored. Carter and Kat meanwhile were by an old console, with Kat working on it and Carter staring out the window.

Almost immediately Six notices the absence of Jorge and feels a lump in his chest. Noble Five was a big part of Noble team (no pun intended) his strong stoic yet reassuring self was like the conscious and spirit of Noble team. Now it was gone, as if the only thing that could be counted as a soul in the Spartan group was now and forever more missing.

"Man it's getting bad out there." Six turns to see Jun still gazing out the window, he wasn't sure if he made a noise or just stood there, but suddenly Jun turns around and says, "Hey, you made it."

Six reaches into his pocket and retrieves Jorge's dog tags. He was about to toss them to Carter when Emile said, "Naw, keep it," Six glances at Noble Four who just said, "He gave it to you, best if you hung on to them, right?"

This must be some sort of Noble team ritual Six wasn't told about so he just pockets the tags again.

Carter looks up and says, "Great job Six, I'm glad things went well today…and that you did your best yesterday."

Before Six could comment, somebody lets out a laugh, a foreign sound in their depressed environment. The team all look to stare at Emile who is still laughing, "Yeah, big man always did say he was willing to give his life for the UNSC."

Carter then steps forward, his confident voice returning, "He gave his life believing he was saving the planet, an example we all should look upon."

"So that's it then," Kat asks, "Just give up our lives here and now?"

Carter turns to her, "Is that a strange way asking if we're losing?"

"I know we're losing," defended Kat, "I just want to know if we lost."

Carter didn't answer, but before anyone could say anything else there was sudden static and a male's voice could be heard.

"Who is that?" Carter suddenly demanded.

"It's Colonel Holland," replies Kat, looking confused herself, "What's he doing on an open channel?"

Kat cleans up the signal and this time Six was able to hear the Colonel, "Noble Team, this is a priority alpha message, please respond if you're listening."

Carter walks up to Kat and asks, "Can they trace this signal?"

Kat looks at him, shrugs and says, "I could."

"Noble," Holland voice cracks over the radio waves again, "This is a priority alpha message, please respond."

Kat held up a small comms earpiece and simply said, "Make it brief."

Carter took the piece and started talking to the colonel. Six and the rest of Noble team watches, waiting, trying to listen in on the message.

Suddenly Kat calls, "I've got massive readings!"

Carter turns to her and says, "I've just lost Holland, what happened?"

"Radiation spike," responded Kat as she types in her data pad, "Close."

"How close?" demands Carter.

Suddenly a large beam of crimson power came crashing to the surface, easily visible to everyone within the city. The pressure was too great as it blasted the window to pieces and blew Noble Team to the ground. Six's helmet began to polarize to cope with the bright light but it was too bright for any of his settings.

"That close!" cries Kat as the Spartans all got on their feet and ran to the back of the room. Their emergency escape route was a pair of elevators that led back down to the surface. Emile, Jun, and Carter ran into one while Six and Kat ran into the other.

Kat closes the door and looks to Six. She couldn't see his face but must be feeling the same rush she was experiencing as well, "First glassing?" before he responds she says, "Me too," as she replaces her helmet.

As they made their way downwards, Emile began talking on Noble Team's private channel, "So where are we going now?"

"Command is sending us back to Sword base," was Carter's answer.

"Sword!?" asks a dumbfounded Jun, "Covenant own it now!"

Their elevator hit the ground first and they ran out, running to a UNSC emergency fall out bunker that was established in case of glassing, it has yet to be tested, but right now it was their only hope.

As they run, Carter explains, "Which is why Holland is sending us back in, we are to torch any and all critical data, anything that is deemed too valuable to fall into Covenant hands."

Six and Kat's elevator finally made it down, they sprinted after the guys bringing up the rear as Kat said, "You would have thought they would have sent us in earli-" She didn't finish her sentence and never will.

There was a sudden blast of crystal, Six felt a weight drop on top of him, forcing him down to the ground. With horror he realizes the dead weight was Kat, in the middle of her faceplate was a smoky hole where the projectile had exited her head.

Six's body reacts, he grabs Kat's magnum, points it in the direction he triangulated where the shot came from and fires. In the air right over his head was a Covenant phantom, the sniper still standing in the side hatch of a phantom. Noble Team joins in, firing their rifles, forcing the ship away. The guys fall back into the bunker and Carter shouts, "Come on, get in here, now!"

With that Six grabs Kat's body and drags her over the threshold of the bunker, just as the blast doors moved horizontally towards each other and sealed the team off from the destruction that was now engulfing the world.

**Shress POV**

Shress feels her hands shaking as she removes them from the console and forces herself to look up at the screen.

The city was now a smoky ruin. Almost all the tall towers had crumbled and a large expanse of molten orange glass covered the land. For a brief moment, night turned into day as pure energy rained from the Reviving Faith and incinerated the city. The dark clouds that hovered over the city departed before the blast and were now being blown away by the wind. The surface was still red hot and carved onto the land was a large circle with three slashes running through the middle; the hieroglyph for the La'Vdamee family.

The entire bridge crew stands and cheers, praising Shress, praising the first female to ever glass a planet, a proud moment for anyone within the Covenant.

And she feels absolutely miserable.

Shress bows her head and makes her way to the Prophet who was grinning quite broadly at her. She keeps her eyes down, hoping he won't see her despair.

"May I get some rest now Prophet?" she asks in a genuine tired voice.

She heard Regret say, "Of course my child, your room is in the officer's corridor, third door on the left."

Shress only nods, not trusting herself to speak for fear of what will come out of her mouth. She walks to the portal and just as it unravels itself to permit her to enter, Regret calls out "La'Vdamee."

She turns, still not meeting the Prophets gaze, "I hope you know any allegiance formed without the consent of the Covenant is often met with death, but in my experience some exceptions can be made…as long as the person learns their lesson, wouldn't you agree?"

Shress could only nod before leaving the room. She lets out her held breath and walks quickly to her assigned room.

Once there, she enters and locks the portal behind her. She didn't inspect her room as she walks towards the bed, only unclips her belt of weapons and puts it on the table beside the cot before collapsing onto the bed. Absent mindedly she reaches for her belt and retrieves one object from her pouch; Michael's necklace.

She glances at it once, causing the silent tears to fall. She places the metallic necklace against her shivering form, as she tries to breath in the remnants of Michael's scent.

She whispers "I'm sorry" as if Michael could hear her through the necklace.

**Six POV**

The dawn brought orange light upon the burnt land, causing the light's reflections to shine off of the now glassed land. The city lays in ruins, nothing but rubble and a few remaining bones of now deceased people remained.

Suddenly from a collapsed building, a small pile of housing material begins to shake. Slowly but eventually, the rubble was shifted aside and out crawled a Spartan. Soon another follows suit, then a third, finally a fourth, carrying a limp body with him.

The four Spartans all stand tall and turn their eyes to the destroyed city as the sun reveals the newly formed glass. As they stare at the destruction one of them notices an aircraft in the distance and casually pops a red smoke grenade and flung it down the hill. The aircraft, a Pelican zeroed in on the smoke and lands slowly, the Spartan walks forward to escape the horror of the glassing.

Six pauses at the ramp and looks back at the razed city. This was where he lost his second teammate. Filled with determination, he looks to his remaining squad; resolve not to lose another friend.

He glances up towards space; not a single one.