A/N: Here we are with chapter 60. Hope you didn't have to wait too long. With the completion of this chapter, this arc will come to a close. I originally wanted to upload sooner, but…I got back online for Halo lol. Been playing Reach like a fiend in an attempt to reach Inheritor (currently at the end of Forerunner). Add me if you want to; my gamertag is the same as my FFN name.
*Chapter 60*
Reach sighed as he looked out of the domed viewport, his hands tight by his sides. The beautiful black sea of space was sprinkled with billions upon billions of stars, and their ship grew closer and closer to the planet below. 'I really was hoping we wouldn't have to come back here again. We are only here to pick up Carolina and tell her our plans. She wants to bring the Director down, but that isn't something she can do alone. She needs help.'
He definitely admired her drive. Even as far back as their days in Project Freelancer seemed, Reach could remember just how stubborn Carolina was; she simply refused to back down, no matter how daunting the challenge. It seemed to be something she inherited from her mother. Texas was just as stubborn, if not more.
Even though she was pregnant, she insisted on doing training exercises to keep herself somewhat fit and would complain loudly for everyone to hear if Reach so much as gave her a stare of disapproval. Reach was more than happy to let her vent her frustrations by letting her shoot training dummies with a wide variety of weaponry. Her favorite tool of mass destruction so far was the Spartan Laser. She cackled like a maniac when a single red burst of energy destroyed half of the shooting range at once, much to Reach's exasperation. Though he didn't bother complaining about it; he learned long ago that pointless arguing wouldn't get anywhere and it was much easier to just clean up the mess than listen to her moaning and groaning about him being overprotective.
Perhaps he was, a little bit. This was a whole new process for him to get used to. He couldn't remember a damn thing about his own parents. Yelling, smiling, nothing. They were just a blur. He couldn't even remember what the hell they looked like.
He heard the bridge door open, and he turned to see Washington standing with a pair of beers in his hand. "Mind if I join?"
"Not at all. Pull up a seat," he invited. Washington joined him on the bridge, opening a beer and handing the other one to the former Spartan.
Several seconds passed by before one of them spoke again, and it was Wash who opened up the conversation. "Beautiful from up here, isn't it? I spent most of my military career onboard a ship, but somehow the novelty hasn't worn off on me."
"It is." Reach took a sip of beer, looking out at the stars. "Hey, Wash? What do you remember about your family?"
"What brought about this question, Dad?" Wash laughed. "Shit, I remember everything. I remember we used to have a barbeque every Saturday. For everyone in the neighborhood. It was a nice little family tradition to have. My dad would often have to help my little sister with her homework, and he'd stay up late reading the next chapters so he could help her again."
"That's the thing. I don't remember shit about my old man," Reach said with a sigh. "I don't remember him being mad, smiling, nothing. I honestly couldn't tell you what the hell he looked like, either."
"You worried you're gonna be that faceless dad or something?" Wash asked. "You're not gonna be that, man. Don't worry too much. Tex will keep your ass in check to make sure you're there when you need to."
Reach cracked a smile at that and swallowed another mouthful of beer. If there was one thing his wife was good at, it was making sure he wasn't an asshole. "She will. She's always been good at it, ever since we were in Blood Gulch." 'Even though I absolutely hated the place, it does hold some good memories. Getting together with Allison, for instance.'
"Well, it's my turn for a question, I guess." Reach put his bottle down and looked over at Washington. "What are you going to do when we pick up Carolina?"
"Put out the fires," he answered seriously. The two were quiet before they snickered, and Washington shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. There's so much I want to tell her, but I'm not sure if I can, man. Especially considering how many losses she's suffered. Her and York had a special connection." Reach could sense a hint of bitterness in his tone at the end, but didn't say anything; he waited for him to continue.
"Carolina, North and York were like a family to me," he continued. "They took me in with open arms, despite me being one of the worst Freelancers in our unit. York and North made me feel right at home with a lot of drinking nights watching Grifball, whereas Carolina took the extra time to train me. Can't count how many times she made me eat the fucking carpet." He laughed at the end.
"Tough love, huh? Sounds familiar to me." Reach chuckled, remembering when he was first brought into the Spartan III program by Colonel Ackerson. "Refused to hold your hand and threw you in headfirst to see whether you'd sink or swim. Went through that kind of shit as a Spartan. If you think Freelancer training was hell, it was a cakewalk compared to what we had to do as Spartans."
"Oh, I know. Alpha gave me a rundown." Wash snorted. "I'm surprised you're still in one piece physically and mentally."
"Technically not physically." Reach gestured to his robotic arm. "I'm still pissed off about that one." 'Can't believe I was bested by a fucking mercenary. Energy Sword or not, I should've had him.'
"Ugh, I think I might be ill," Eta muttered in his head. "You're still angry about losing your arm?"
'Yes,' he sent back, his lip twitching in irritation. 'My carelessness cost me a limb, and as a Spartan I should've been able to overpower him'
"Get over it. If you meet him again, rip his arms off and use them to applaud his demise while you and your wife do some sort of sacrificial dance around his corpse," Eta replied dryly. His implant started to burn a little, and Reach rolled his eyes.
"Hey, assholes." Alpha's hologram appeared in front of the two, and he looked irritated as usual. "We're in Blood Gulch's airspace. Want to take a dropship down?"
"Yes. Let me notify the rest of the team." Reach picked up his helmet and keyed the comms. "Attention everyone, we're now in Blood Gulch's airspace. I want you all to get suited up. We're going down. Jun and Allison, keep an eye on the ship. Make sure she stays out of the kitchens too; I don't want her raiding the cabinets." Washington covered up his laugh with a fake cough at the last bit.
He could hear several loud groans from the Reds and Blues, but they were quickly shut up by a sharp hiss from Maine. Even on the comms, the giant Freelancer had a powerful air of intimidation around him. No one would be stupid enough to try and bitch to him, apart from Grif. He never learned.
Washington fitted on his helmet, looking at Blood Gulch from above before heading out. "You know…I think I'm seeing why you hate this place. It's really just a giant fucking desert in the middle of fucking nowhere."
"We seem to run into those a lot lately," Reach agreed, walking next to him. "Deserts, giant ice bowls, uninhabited jungles, the lot. I could use a nice tropical paradise with palm trees and coconut rum cocktails. I think I've earned it."
"We all have, man. Dealing with the Meta, and Massa…" He trailed off at the last name, and his jaw clenched. "Do you think I did the right thing by not killing her?"
"There's no right or wrong answer. Would I have killed her? Probably." Reach shrugged. "But I was trained to handle threats differently than you were. I didn't have any connection to her. But you did. You got to see what kind of person she was like. You may hate her for what she did, but I can understand why she did it. Anyone who had someone they wanted to protect would do it." 'I'd do it myself for Allison or anyone on Noble Team and gladly suffer the consequences.'
"You know, I hate that you're right about that," Wash admitted, kicking the ground a little as he looked at his rifle. "I'd have done the same thing for Carolina or York."
"I thought I was supposed to be brooding and shit, not you." Reach clapped him on the shoulder and they met up with Maine and South, who had the Reds and Blues in tow. "Everyone geared up?"
Everyone nodded yes.
"Good. Let's retrieve an old friend."
Carolina groaned as she woke up, feeling as though she was hit in the back of the head with a cinderblock. Her stomach churned in the most unpleasant of manners, and for a moment the redhead wondered if she would throw up. She managed to keep her lunch down and righted herself up from her cot, clutching her abdomen as she hobbled out of bed. "Ugh…I'm never drinking that shit again. Ever."
Her decision to try the liquor to end all liquors was looking like it was easily the worst decision she had ever made in her life.
Carolina managed to fit her armor back on, and she heard a loud whine in the sky above Red Base. "What the hell is going on?" 'Am I still drunk, or is that a Pelican dropship?'
She grabbed a BR85 rifle and her stun baton before heading outside, and she rubbed her eyes as the dropship landed. "What the…?"
The rear of the dropship opened up and several figures came out, and Carolina's eyes widened in shock as she saw achingly familiar faces. Maine, South, Reach, and Wash. Her family, her friends, were here. "Maine? South? Reach? Wash? What the hell are you guys doing here?"
"Came looking for you," Wash answered, and he stopped in front of her with a smile on his face. one of his eyes had a nasty cut through them and was cloudy and sightless, but he was still the same Wash she knew.
To hell with always being the cold soldier who never let anything show.
She ran towards him and hugged him tightly. "I thought you were dead…"
An unfamiliar wetness stung the corners of her eyes, and Wash's hands settled on her back as he returned the hug. "I'm glad to see you in one piece, Carolina. I was relieved when we picked up your transmitter."
Carolina's head rested in his chest, and she relaxed. Everyone she loved and wanted to protect was here, and she looked up at Reach with her vision still somewhat hazy from the shock of seeing her friends alive and the god awful concoction he had stashed in the fridge. "Can I just say…while it is great to see you all, you have some explaining to do for that jar of poison in the fridge in Red Base, Reach."
Maine and South started snickering, and Reach sighed. "I thought I put a label on it that said not to drink it. It's still a work in progress. It would floor even Maine."
"Well, you did. Unfortunately curiosity got the better of me." Carolina rolled her eyes. "Seriously, what the hell is in that?"
"You don't want to know. For your sanity," Reach answered. He jerked his thumb back to the smoking ruin of Blue Base in the distance, flames still swallowing the remaining structure. "Meanwhile, care to explain why the Blue Base looks like a bomb was dropped on it?"
Carolina chuckled nervously, and she broke apart from Wash to scratch the back of her head. "Well…"
"Do you want the long version or the short version?"
Reach was gonna laugh when he heard this story.
Simmons and Grif looked at Red Base, not wanting to get involved in the Freelancers' business. They were mostly confused, mainly for the fact that Red Base was entirely surrounded by lush grassy fields. In the middle of the desert.
"Hey," Grif said, looking at the grass around them.
"Yeah?" Simmons asked.
"Is it me, or is this place…a lot greener than when we left?" Grif gestured to the grass, wincing. That beatdown Maine put on him still fucking hurt.
Simmons looked around, and he chuckled nervously. " I think I left the sprinklers on before we left."
"Dude, we left here like how many months ago?" Grif sighed.
"Yeah, I know. The lieutenant is gonna be pissed when he sees that water bill."
Ah, fuck it. At least his vegetable garden was doing nicely.
A/N: A little shorter, but I want to end this one before I head into work. I'll probably get to work on the next arc when I get home at 10:30 or so, unless I end up playing Halo lol. Hope you enjoyed, and see you!
C. Strife #5371