CHAPTER 16: OPERATION UNFUCK YOURSELF

0530 Hours, October 4, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Planet Remnant, Continent of Sanas

The Master Chief decided that after five days of training in land navigation, the time was now to move on, so they packed up all of their belongings, made their camp disappear, and quickly left to travel to the southeast. They would be needing a resupply soon and the closest major city was on the opposite side of this mountain range and close might not be the right word to describe the distance.

By his own calculations and based on his map, the spartan worked out that it would be at least another 90 kilometers. That translated to about three days to four days of travelling at the current pace that all three of them were travelling, which was neither particularly fast nor particularly slow, just average.

Marching many kilometers with a full pack of equipment, food, water, and ammunition was deceptively exhausting. Particularly in his early years, John and his fellow spartans were forced to march hundreds of kilometers with a heavy ruck against his back. Even worse were the days of going out into the field with full battle rattle and weapons.

The first few steps felt fine, but once the pace picked up, calves and ankles would begin to burn. The only way to keep moving forward was to simply ignore the pain and force each leg forward no matter what. Eventually, the body would become numb to the pain and it would be much easier to keep pushing forward.

Still, his trainees would likely need more prolonged resting times at night so that their bodies didn't simply break. If need be, he would have them use aura to accelerate the healing process.

The Chief regarded the two teenage girls as they rucked.

Rose was struggling the most. Without aura, her true physical strength was cut down significantly, but that didn't matter. She had to meet the standards and expectations befitting of a UNSC combat role. Her strength could be developed with time, but being physically powerful wasn't her only problem. The way that she moved indicated a lack of experience in carrying heavy loads for long distances. However, she appeared to be mentally focused, which was the primary reason she hadn't fallen out yet.

Xiao-Long, by contrast had plenty more physical strength, which was helping her keep a more consistent pace, but she too was suffering from inexperience as well and unlike her half-sister, the blonde didn't seem to be all there mentally.

Ever since revealing the combat footage with Rose killing the bandit, Xiao-Long had been silent these past few days. She did as she was told and offered no resistance. Not even her face displayed any signs of attitude or rebellion. The change in her behavior was so drastic that the armor-clad spartan observed her carefully whenever possible. He needed to be aware of all changes, no matter how small, in his recruits.

So far, nothing the blonde girl said or did indicated any particularly troubling evolutions. If anything, her silent compliance was a welcome change of pace. There were no more arguments, no more pointless talking, and no more unnecessary noise. It was the ideal sort of transformation, one that he gladly embraced.

Yet it also felt off to him.

"Rose, pick up the pace." John said firmly. "You'll suffer longer if you slow down."

"I'm working on it, Chief." Ruby was panting mildly. "I'm just… so tired. I had no idea this would be so tough. It's just a backpack, so why does it feel like it weighs so much more?"

"You'll get used to it." The NCOIC intoned. "We are, in essence, a light unit. We must be prepared to trek long distances without vehicles. It's better to be able to do this and not need to than needing to and not being able to."

"Roger that." Rose grunted in pain and forced herself forward. "I'll figure it out."

With time, the spartan would teach his young trainee how to properly ruck. For now, he needed to assess her ability to contend with long stretches of arduous travelling. She was just going to have to find it in herself to keep pushing even though she did not want to.

John decided to let the younger female be and took off in a light shuffle and quickly reached the older female. If the blonde girl was aware of his presence at her 9'oclock, then she did not indicate as such.

"Xiao-Long." The Master Chief said. "How are you feeling?"

The girl with lilac eyes did not respond, merely kept her eyes on the ground as she moved along. Her movements were mechanical. Her face was devoid of any of the emotions she had been expressing in the past.

"Xiao-Long." The spartan called out to her much louder.

"...I'm fine." The seventeen year old female answered quietly after a moment.

No, she clearly wan't. The video of Rose killing for the first time clearly had caused a lasting effect mentally. That seemed to indicate that in all of her training to be a warrior, she had never received proper instruction about how to deal with death in battle, a very poor oversight for whoever was responsible for her training. Now it was his job to rectify that error properly.

John decided to maintain an aggressive approach. "Then pick your head up and stop thinking about things you can't change. Otherwise, you can see yourself back to Vale."

A slight change in the blonde girl's facial features didn't go unnoticed by him. "I can't go back there. Not now, not ever."

"Why not?" The man pressed her.

"Because it wouldn't be the same." The voice sounded distant, hurt, and betrayed. "Ruby's not the same, I'm not the same, our family's changed forever, and not in a good way. Even if we did go back, we can't return to normal."

A small part of the Master Chief could sympathize with this feeling. The death and crippling of his brothers and sisters during augmentation had changed them all. Sam's death in their first engagement against the Covenant had changed them.

"There's no point fixating on the past." The spartan refocused on her. "Right now, we're trying to get across this mountain range and make it to the other side. That's all that matters right now."

"I can't just stop thinking about it." Xiao Long's words were less about protesting and more about uncertainty. "I don't know how I can."

The war veteran gave her a look through his helmet. "Do you have a solution for your problem at this very moment?"

"...no." The brawler uttered reluctantly.

"Then there is no point thinking about it." Perhaps his advice was not the best, but he needed her attention elsewhere. "So stop feeling sorry for yourself and keep moving forward. If your mind wanders, you're distracted and more liable to get killed."

Something in his words appeared to shake her, but he wasn't sure what exactly she latched onto. However, there was a silent compliance in her eyes. The rational side of him welcomed this simple and easy ability to fall in line, but to say that he was completely okay with this conformity would be a lie.

John proceeded to increase the speed of the pace and it was only after leading for some twenty meters when that feeling of doubt in the back of his mind began to increase in presence in his mind.

He needed to ask her. He needed to be sure.

The Master Chief once again rucked alongside the elder trainee. "Why are you following orders so readily when you were adverse to them in the past?"

The sound of boots hitting the ground was the most prominent sound, followed by the occasional bird overhead, and then the insects buzzing around in the air, but the young girl did not speak.

Five seconds passed.

Then ten.

Twenty.

Forty.

Then, an answer.

"I don't know." Xiao Long's answer came after a considerable pause, followed by another few moments of silence. "I'm just doing it. Seems easier that way."

It was an answer that carried only a vague understanding, but maybe that was simply all there was to it. Mere days ago, her eyes contained such unchecked and unrestrained emotions; now, it was replaced by something that appeared hollow and empty.

And there was only one person to blame for it: himself.

Spartan 117 felt like Cortana would know more about this than he would. No, she would definitely know more about it than he would. She would probably explain what the blonde-haired girl was thinking, then suggest that he do something about her current state of mind.

John realized that once again, his former companion had invaded his thoughts subconsciously. Her continued absence was one that he apparently still was not used to, and that was ironic in light of the fact that he once wished she would be silent.

A part of his mind could only hope that his trainees would somehow fill the void, but that hope was dashed. Such a thought was unprofessional, not to mention highly dangerous to their dynamic.

Mendez never showed weakness. The Master Chief reminded himself. And neither will I.

Halo - - - RWBY

1600 Hours

Ruby winced in pain as she tended to the blisters that had developed on her feet after nearly five hours of rucking with only the occasional breaks in-between. She had done her best to ignore the pain, but once they had stopped for the night, she couldn't help but feel her body force that pain to the forefront of her mind.

It didn't help that she was carrying a ruck that was a little over a third of her own weight. It seemed like such an easy thing at first, carrying weight on her back and for the first hundred meters or so, things were fine.

Then the calves started to burn and it became harder to take even a few steps forward. To compensate for all of the lactic acid, she began to breathe harder, but that only served to exhaust her further, making further steps even more arduous. The only way to push forward was to force her mind to think about anything other than her desire to stop. No matter how painful things were, she refused to quit.

But Ruby would not deny that she was glad that the day was over. She intended to savor her food, hydrate with plenty of water, and get some decent shut-eye. Gods knew that she needed as much of all three of those things as humanly possible. While she had gotten used to the training, that wasn't to say she liked it all the time. In actuality, she kind of hated everything to some degree.

These days, the Master Chief was shouting a lot less and acting more like a teacher and he was good at what he did, that much was clear.

For example, he had given the silver-eyed girl tips on how to shoot better. While she was a true expert when it came to being a sniper, her hyperfocus on long-range shooting had left her somewhat rusty in mid and close range. Naturally, her NCO made sure she knew her fundamentals, but he also gave some tips and tricks regarding how to hold a weapon relative to the body, where to position the hands in certain given scenarios, and how to more accurately judge bullet trajectory to name a few.

The Chief preferred to show more than tell, but if he needed to explain something, he did so with only the details necessary and in the most simple way possible. Ruby could appreciate his methods of instruction. She preferred to get her hands dirty rather than simply be taught by word of mouth and reading a lot.

The hours before lights out were usually filled with small refreshers of knowledge, something to test whether or not the fifteen-year old teenage girl retained critical knowledge she would need befitting her duties. The few times that her brain could not come up with an answer, she had paid for it physically. It only took two times for her to force herself to study every day for at least an hour.

"How do you feel?" The armored giant approached her. "Is there anything I should know about?"

"Just feeling sore all over." Ruby began to stretch out her calves, only to come upon an instant feeling of pain. "Fuck, that hurts!"

It was weird; she could now use curse words so casually now. She used to have a swear jar at home for every time she either heard someone say a bad word or said one herself. Now, she could say the words and not even blink.

When did this change happen?

She had no idea.

"Make sure that you do as much stretching as possible." The Master Chief noted her efforts and added his own input. "Failure to do so will result in potentially crippling injuries with time."

"Yep." Ruby groaned while maintaining the stretch. "My unmoveable legs are proof of that. Ow!"

"As soon as you're done eating, I need you." The golden visor turned away to look at a scroll. "We need to talk about Xiao Long."

Ruby nodded, although she sighed. "Too easy."

It wasn't a topic she cared much to talk about, but with things the way they were, this conversation was going to happen sooner or later. It was better to be done with it and move on. Then they'd never have to think about it again.

"Master Chief." Ruby looked back into the fire she was sitting in front of. "Can I ask a question?"

"Go ahead." Her superior nodded.

"I know that we're a light team and all, but is there a chance we'll ever use vehicles?" Ruby asked the question that was fueled by her hatred of rucking. "I get it, it's important to be able to do this, rucking and shit, but that can't be the only way we travel."

"No, it's not our only means of moving." He shook his head. "When we reach our destination, we'll find a faster means of moving around. While it is important to develop a tolerance for rucking, too much of it will potentially injure you severely. If need be, we will take additional time off to rest."

"Fucking A." Ruby moved to stretch out her opposite side.

"Hurry up and eat." The Chief moved to his section of the camp. "We're burning daylight."

Not wishing to trample upon the goodwill she had built with her senior NCO, the former scythe-wielder quickly scarfed her food down, chugged some water, and gathered her weapon to begin the important talk.

Ruby made her way to where the Master Chief was located in the camp.

"We'll get started." He was sitting down on a log, taking accountability of his weapon, which he put to the side once she made herself known. "As you might've noticed, Xiao Long's behavior has changed radically. I'm sure you know why."

"Yeah." The female trainee nodded her head. "She knows what I've done. Guess she thought that I could be saved from all of this."

"That doesn't explain why she now follows orders without question." The Master Chief said quietly. "I need to know if there's a danger that I'm not seeing."

"Honestly, I don't know." And Ruby was telling the truth. "I've never seen her like this before. She's always been confident, not to mention bitchy sometimes. Nobody's been able to beat her at anything… until you."

"She's never lost before in any meaningful way." His tone was less neutral and more understanding, surprisingly enough. "Which has led her to believe that she'll always win no matter what."

"And it's come back to bite her in the ass." The girl merely shrugged. "Well, sucks to be her."

"That doesn't help me discern a way to navigate her mental situation." The Master Chief's visor gazed at her. "Whatever differences you and your sister have, it's time to put them aside for all of our sake."

"I hear you." Ruby sighed immensely, but she didn't argue with him. "I just… I don't know if I can do this."

"You will do this." His tone gave no room for question. "You are teammates. If not for a relationship, then help her to help yourself. You don't want to die and neither does she."

Ruby snorted. "She's got a funny way of showing it."

He didn't offer her any words, but her eyes regarded his visor and she had the feeling that he was looking at her with mild annoyance or disappointment, even if she had never seen his face.

"I'll see what I can do, Master Chief." Ruby forced herself to be neutral. "But I don't think this'll be a quick fix."

"And I don't expect it to be." His tone returned to its usual evenness. "But you two might need to rely on each other. I'm not always going to be here."

"I guess." Ruby responded, and then she had a question. "So what'll you do in the meantime, Chief?"

"Keep tabs on her behavior, speak to her whenever an opportunity presents itself." The giant stood up, staring off into the horizon. "Just as you do your part, I must do mine. I wouldn't ask you to do anything that I wouldn't be willing to do myself."

"You don't need to tell me, Master Chief." Ruby held her hands up. "I know you're doing just that. I might be hurting when we ruck, but I saw you talking to her earlier."

"That's all I wanted to talk about." He retrieved his weapon. "Carry on."

"Yes, Master Chief." Although she was not at parade rest, Ruby adopted a formal tone, even if only for a second.

He would be back soon enough, so now was the time to make herself scarce. She quickly gathered what she needed and relocated to her section of the camp.

Yang probably took my spot when I left. Ruby mused to herself. I should at least try to talk to her a little bit if she's there.

And to her expectation, there was her elder half-sister, staring into the fire with those empty eyes that were now the norm.

Well, here goes nothing. Ruby composed herself.

RWBY - - - Halo

1637 Hours

Yang didn't know and didn't care what the Master Chief and Ruby were talking about. She just wanted to be left alone.

Even now, faced with the cruel truth of her baby sister's irreversible transformation, she still was shocked. How could such an innocent soul become a killer and just embrace it as if it were nothing? It just didn't make any sense and no amount of logic or reasoning was helping her understand any better.

In fact, just as the Chief had suggested, she should've just left them and returned to Vale. It probably would have been a good idea if not for the fact that her general sense of direction in the wilderness was terrible. There was also the fact that Grimm this far away from the kingdom was more dangerous. Third, supplies were limited and she knew virtually nothing about hunting and gathering food in the wild.

More importantly, Yang understood what would happen if she returned home to her father empty-handed and with news of Ruby's new outlook on life. The man had lost two women in his life and the second time had nearly killed his spirit. The third time would probably do him and that would be the end.

In short, she was either going to lose her sister or lose her father. The loss of either one of them was something that she couldn't accept.

She had already been abandoned by her mother.

Summer had died and left her.

Her father had been emotionally absent dealing with his grief over his second wife's death.

Now her sisterly bond with Ruby was all but gone.

And that could result in her dad's complete destruction.

These were the thoughts that filled Yang's head as she carried out the orders and duties assigned to her. She did them with only a half-hearted approach, but they weren't overly difficult things to do. She was getting decent results even with her mind buried in her grief and pain. Still, she couldn't give anything her full attention.

The fire in front of her provided warmth, it gave her a way to cook her food, and it gave her eyes something to focus on, but those things weren't really what she wanted. Nothing here could offer her what she wanted.

What she needed.

Yang couldn't even summon the ability to cry and even if she could, the effort would be wasted. If she wanted people to feel bad for her, she would have much better luck back home. People there knew her, respected her, even cared about her. Here, she was just someone with a weapon and two bodyguards in essence.

She would probably die herself soon if she didn't do something about herself.

And in all honesty?

That didn't feel like the worst idea in the world.

It would just be over and done with in an instant.

Before being able to contemplate any further on the idea, someone unceremoniously collapsed next to her, taking up a cross-legged seated position.

"What's up?" Ruby's casual tone was so out of place in comparison to the usual greeting between them as of late. "You good?"

"... um, yeah." Yang lamely replied. "Everything's… goo-"
"Shut the fuck up." Ruby bluntly interrupted her. "You're lyin'."

"...yeah, guess I am." Yang didn't know what else to say. "Everything's not good."

The two sisters sat with only a foot between them, a silence settling around them. This was the closest that they had ever been in weeks in more ways than one, but with the complicated feelings surrounding the two of them, it was anything but a comfortable silence that permeated.

"What do you want?" Yang almost said her sister's name, but not quite.

…

…

…

"When I first killed that bandit, I almost threw up." Ruby began talking. "I was just as shocked as you were about killing that man."

Yang continued to look into the fire, but she listened to the story.

"But I did it because it was either him or us." Ruby pushed forward, her tone serious. "I want to live and I didn't want to be responsible for the death of innocent villages and the Master Chief. If I had lived and people died, I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt."

When she put it like that, Yang could understand to a degree.

Ruby let ler legs fall flat to the ground. "But the kingdom probably wouldn't see it that way. If we were back in Vale, I would've gone to prison, so it's better that I'm out here. Here's the thing: if I had a choice to do it all over again, I would still pull that trigger."

Yang finally looked at her younger sister and what she saw was frightening: silver eyes burning with intensity and certainty.

"I'm a killer and I'm training to be a professional killer." Ruby leaned back to get more comfortable. "But you know what? It's something I can get behind, I think. It's not like I kill for fun, but now that I've done it, I can't say that killing is never justifiable. That's the naive huntress talking."

The sounds of the fire were blocked out by Yang as she digested what she was hearing. It was more than she had gotten a week ago, but it didn't fulfill her the way she wished it would. At best, it was a bit of closure.

"That's why I can't go home." Ruby let out a breath of air. "I need to figure things out myself… come to terms with all this shit in a way that I can tell dad and uncle Qrow. I don't want them to baby me and tell me to forget about it all. I can't forget it all. I don't want to forget it all. I'm not a baby anymore."

And she wasn't. The words coming out of the mouth of her little sister were not the words that came out of a child, mentally speaking that is. They were the words of someone who had experienced and given thought to said experience.

"What about me?" Yang first said, then quickly amended her words. "What about us?"

"We're teammates." Ruby gave a somewhat peeved look. "If you stay here, that's how it's got to be. We're still family, sure, but that can't get in the way of our job."

"I still don't even know what 'that job' is." Yang shook her head to get some strands of her hair out of her face. "What's the Chief thinking?"

"I don't fucking know." Ruby shrugged. "But I'm doing it. It is what it is."

Yang thought about their relationship now. "Teammates. I guess… that'll work."

"Too easy." Ruby accepted this answer. "That's that, now it's time to get some sleep. We're waking up early tomorrow. See ya then, Xiao Long."

Using her last name was the final reminder that they were starting over and truth be told, the older female was hurt by it. By contrast, the younger female merely took a seat opposite of her fellow trainee and quickly began to disassemble her weapon, likely to start cleaning it as it was custom to do every day.

Following her example seemed like the best thing to do right now. The shotgun closeby soon found itself being taken apart, far slower than the more experienced expert shooter, but the weapon was familiar enough to the brawler. The task had been done enough times that she could allow her mind to wander a bit.

Rebuilding a broken relationship from the ground up would be a lot of work. It was a far cry from the intimate relationship that the half-siblings once had. To Yang, it wasn't enough for her. She wanted more than just being able to say last names. She wanted to be a family again with no secrets and no trust issues.

Her lilac eyes wandered for the briefest of moments and unexpectedly found the Master Chief quietly observing from the edge of their section of the camp. His arms were at his side, his posture straight and strong.

How did he get there without either of them noticing?

And just as soon as she laid eyes on his armored form, he turned around and left them to their own devices, disappearing like a phantom.

Yang couldn't help but wonder about this man. So many mysteries all in a singular being. She could only speculate as to what sort of life he had led. Clearly, he had acquired many different skills that were of military origin, yet none of it seemed like the sort of thing she would find in the militaries of the four kingdoms.

Now that she thought about it, she no longer felt any sort of intense burning hatred. A bit of wariness and perhaps some mistrust was present, but compared to when they had first traded blows, this was much more calm.

I wonder if we'll ever call him anything other than his rank. Yang mused to herself. It gets a bit tiring calling him the same thing.

Halo - - - RWBY

2345 Hours

Qrow honestly didn't know what the hell he was doing.

For the past week, he had been carefully shadowing Ruby and Yang as they followed alongside the giant armored man. He knew that it was a man because the guy had taken off his helmet to eat food and drink water, but he hadn't been able to see his face. Either the bright sunlight or an improper angle or the darkness would somehow never allow him to get a full picture. Curse his bad luck.

At this point, he had a good idea of what was going on. Ruby had experienced her first kill and she really didn't have a way to process it in a way that would make sense to her naive mind, hence why she tagged along with this 'Master Chief' person. Yang, in her own naivety, believed that she could convince her younger sister to turn away, but it was already too late for that. An experience like killing changed people more often than not.

This was probably the point where Qrow ought to intervene, take back his nieces, and return to Vale. After all, this man was probably not the best person to be leading two teenage girls. He clearly had no concept of how to interact with them other than anything involving military training and whatnot.

And on the matter of military training, he clearly was not of any of the four kingdoms. The seasoned huntsman had seen all of the militaries in the world, Vacuo excluding seeing as they had no military. None of the conventional or even unconventional strategies and tactics of any of those armed forces matched up with what he was seeing.

There were too many red flags to ignore, yet the scythe-wielder chose not to intervene. He wanted to see how this played out and for now, it appeared that his nieces weren't in any mortal danger so to speak. They were being put through their paces to be sure, but this was the sort of thing that every huntsman or huntress went through in their life sooner or later. Ruby and Yang were simply getting a headstart.

Actually, the two of them were probably never going to be huntresses at this rate. It was clear as day that their mentalities were changing in a way that wasn't going to be easily reversed. If anything, it would be counterproductive to do so. They were at a crossroads and they were having to come to terms with themselves.

Again, it was yet another reason to intervene, but unlike most huntsmen, Qrow didn't believe in blind idealism. A certain exposure to the harsh realities of this world were in order for those that chose to pick up a weapon and fight.

Plus, he had faith in the two girls.

He had a feeling that no matter what happened, they would pull through.

It's been a while and I sincerely apologize. My job has been keeping me thoroughly busy and more often than not, my schedule's not really consistent. Plus, there's going to the gym and being social. Basically, the Army.

Even though I've only been in the Army for a brief time, my time is influencing how I write this story in particular. I have nothing but love for the Halo series, but I can't help but notice the inconsistencies in it. Remember, Halo military structure is derived heavily from the U.S. military, so of course, I'm going to be a bit more critical of its flaws.

For example, it's not uncommon for the word "soldier" to be used as a term to delineate all combat personnel in the military. However, every branch has a term that represents their branch. For the Army, it's Soldier. For the Marines, it's Marine. For the Navy, it's sailor. For the Air Force, it's Airman. For civilians, the distinction honestly doesn't matter, but to those of us in the military, it does matter.

If you're looking for a broad term to encompass all branches, 'troop' works just fine or serviceman

Anyway, what do you guys think of this chapter? Reviews and feedback are always appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

"The best time to make friends is before you need them."

Ethel Barrymore