Chapter 5: A little bit of understanding.

Noble Six was very happy to be behind the wheel of a Warthog again, it was the first normal thing to happen to her since waking up on this planet and it was nice. She was also grateful for the coat once the rain started yet again, even if she was less grateful for the fact that they'd been forced to stop while the others looked for coats of their own.

We're kind of in a hurry, get a move on.

We're already wearing a coat, give them a break.

Stopping is a mistake, we're gonna get caught.

Thankfully they weren't that long; Yatsuhashi had even found a see-through poncho under his seat so he was also safe from the rain. Well, safe from getting wet, at the very least. The deluge itself did cause them problems later down the road when the path was especially muddy and the Transport hog skidded drastically across the soft terrain, very nearly rolling over before slamming into a tree.

"Watch it!" Coco called, scowling at the Spartan who was simply focusing on trying to get the hog's front bumper out of the tree it had crashed into.

"We lost traction, didn't we?" Fox asked, smirking slightly as he gripped the cage of the transport hogs back end.

"Yes we did, seriously doubting your ability to drive this thing now, by the way." Coco smirked, looking at the Spartan who finally turned away to scowl at her.

"I'm not Kat, I can drive a freakin' car."

"Oh I dunno, let's call her up and see if she can drive better than you." Coco said dismissively, before the Spartan looked up and the beret wearing girl recoiled at her scowl.

"She's… gone." Six said before slamming the pedals down, forcing the car forward.


The Alien car was soon at the village gate, and after driving carefully through the reinforced door they left it parked down an alley. It wasn't an official parking spot, the village didn't actually have enough room for one, but it was better than leaving it outside the walls where anyone could find it.

"Six, we're going to need to take you to the doctor." Velvet said, being the first person to talk since Six had snapped at Coco earlier. "Your arm's only gotten worse, I know you don't think it's broken but…"

The girl answered slowly, as if every word was carefully planned out:

"I will admit, it hurt more than I expected it to."

"Great. Vel, you find her a Doctor, I'll sort out a bed for her." Coco said. "You guys can pick who you go with."

In the end Fox and Yatsuhashi went with Coco, partly because of an unspoken agreement that they needed to talk with their leader, but also because they knew the doctor's place was tiny and didn't need any unnecessary visitors to arrive with the patients.

"Do you think her friend is…? Like, when she said gone…" Coco asked, startling the two boys out of their mental planning session.

"If I had to guess…" Yatsuhashi asked before shrugging. "She sounded genuine."

"Well yeah, what about you Fox, get anything interesting?"

"Coco, you know full well my Semblance doesn't let me read people's emotions." Fox said, sighing. "I could tell she was nearby due to her Aura, and frankly that's impressive."

"I know you're really skilled-" Coco began before she was cut off by Fox.

"No, I mean it's impressive I was able to detect anything about her. I wasn't joking when I said her Aura was the weakest I'd ever seen. It's so dull I wouldn't be surprised if she can't use it at all." Fox explained.

"How do you think she ended up like that?" Yatsuhashi asked. "Aura doesn't just go away, everyone has enough to protect themselves at least."

"I'm not sure she does, I noticed it when I was younger, some members of the tribe were… dull." Fox explained, speaking gently and rubbing his scared arms. "Mostly the older ones, usually on their own for a long time or suffering great loss. They just didn't shine as bright as the others did. Doesn't mean they were useless or couldn't fight, it's just…"

Fox trailed off, obviously not sure what else to say.

"She must have been close with this Kat person." Coco said. "Dammit, now I feel like a bitch for being a jerk to her."

"Relax, it isn't like you could've known." Fox pointed out as they entered the hotel's lobby. "And if you flirt with the receptionist again I'm telling Velvet."

"Yeah, thanks for that." Coco muttered, rolling her eyes even as the guilt began flaring up. She was a natural flirt, god knows how many hearts she'd broken at Pharos Academy. It was fun but… she had a girlfriend now, and it felt like a part of her hadn't fully accepted that yet, or at least didn't see the point because she didn't believe it would last.

Still, she was going to be damned if she didn't at least make an effort to turn it down some. She very calmly asked for a spare bed for the Spartan, her mind fixed on Velvet as she spoke.

The Faunus girl was good for her, and had her back through far too many messes during their first year. The fun of flirting was not worth what it could cost; frankly, she was probably on thin ice for how she'd been acting around the girl with orange eyes.

Six was just so… rude. She hadn't even said thank you to Yatsuhashi for borrowing his coat, or apologised for insulting her multiple times. But Velvet was sympathising with her, that mattered, so had her rescue of Yatsuhashi. Just because someone was rude to her didn't give her an excuse to be rude back, especially when she'd done so much for her.

It was with that thought that she decided to offer the girl her bed before they went to sleep. The hotel didn't have a spare bed they could drag into one of the rooms, but they did have a sleeping mat available. Coco groaned, she needed her beauty sleep and this thing was so thin no one could possibly get comfortable on it.


"Okay Miss Six, we're done." The Doctor said, pushing his glasses back up his face, smiling kindly as the girl curled her arm. "My Semblance should have repaired the damage, however it will need time to heal properly, I would strongly advise against doing anything strenuous for at least a week."

"I thought you repaired my bones?" Six asked, feeling her hair shift as she angled her head to the side.

"I've essentially made you an internal cast, your bones are being held together and you should be able to move your arm, however, I must implore you to be careful. Anything too strenuous will cause them to break, and probably significantly worse than before, so no fighting Beringels anytime soon okay?" The old man offered with a smile, his brown dog ears flicking back as he spoke.

"I won't fight any Beringels until this arm is healed." Six said, technically not lying given that, whatever a Beringel was, they weren't in the Covenant and thus she wasn't going to fight one. Velvet had said the creature's name, so she assumed it was a local lifeform.

"We'll make sure she's careful." Velvet said with a small smile as she looked Six over. "Come on, we need to get to the hotel."

With that Six got up off the patient chair and moved to the door, going through it and letting it close behind her. It took her a second to realise that Velvet hadn't been right behind her; she stopped and waited, taking a moment to examine the village they were in.

At a guess, it had just over three hundred civilians living inside it. The housing was mostly squat, keeping very low to the ground and often single story buildings, usually with terraces on the roofs. One thing that was consistent was the wooden construction, with the lower rock walls reinforcing the base of each building;, though some of the larger structures seemed to be pure stone.

Strange that they don't build taller buildings.

I think they want to keep everything lower than the walls.

Six nodded at that thought, she did have to respect the village's practical attitude towards fortifications. The walls were at least two metres thick and predominantly made of large rocks, with a wooden structure on top that allowed patrols of guards to watch what was going on outside. Combine that with the gun turrets set up in each corner and above every gate, and you had somewhere that could defend itself.

Six turned when the door opened again, the girl with the rabbit ears exiting and bowing behind her.

"And again, thank you for patching her up." Velvet said, before turning to Six and looking at her, Six noted her expression didn't seem… Pleased.

"Why were you delayed leaving?" Six asked.

"Well for one thing, I had to pay the Doctor for looking at you." Velvet said simply. "I also thought he deserved at least some thanks given how you didn't say anything to him."

"Was I supposed to?" Six asked, tilting her head she added: "Wait, you have to pay the Doctors here?"

"As an unregistered person, yes, you do have to pay him." Velvet explained as she set off, leading Six to where they'd be staying for the night. "He's mostly paid by taxes taken from the villagers but that only covers the residents and any external forces they bring in. Given how we just found you, we had to pay."

The Spartan nodded, that sort of made sense. For as well defended as this place was, it still seemed fairly remote.

"I never had to think about payment for… anything before." Six admitted. Velvet looked at her, evidently confused.

"Never? But what about before, when you were in the USSC?"

"UNSC." Six corrected automatically. "They provided me with everything I needed, including medical treatment."

"What about thanking someone, surely you must have had to do that before?"

Six thought for a second as Velvet ducked under the cover of a nearby building to avoid the rain while Six continued to walk down the uncovered path, never having been one to shy away from the elements.

"I have yes, however, it was rare for us to bother with formalities." Six finally explained as they turned down another alley into a larger courtyard, the stands suggested this was a market when it was less dark out or when the weather wasn't so negative.

"Why did being a Spartan make you above being nice?" Velvet asked.

Six snorted at that, causing Velvet's ears to jump up.

"I'm not a spook, I'm a Soldier. I had to respect the chain of command." Six explained, the muscles in her face hurting slightly. "It's just…"

She trailed off slightly, how much could she actually say to this civilian?

Spartans never die, they're just missing in action. There's a reason the high death toll for our kind isn't general knowledge.

It couldn't hurt to tell her though.

It's still classified information.

We're not even in UNSC space.

Loose lips sink ships, we can't just give away secrets like that.

"Spartans… go MIA a lot." Six said, sick of her thoughts going around in circles. "It's better not to get attached."

The look on Velvet's face said she had managed to figure out what Six was trying to avoid saying, which might have been a bit too much for a Civilian to know. If she did however, she was keeping it close to her chest, and you didn't go around silencing civilians on suspicion.

Tell that to our old boss.

Shaking her head, Six decided to pivot the direction of the conversation before Velvet asked anything she couldn't answer.

"You and the doctor, you have an extra set of ears."

"Yeah… we're both Faunus." Velvet answered. "How rare are Faunus in the UNSC?"

"I've never heard of a Faunus before today." Six said flatly. "So far as I know, you don't exist where I'm from."

"You sure we're just not allowed in." Velvet muttered darkly. Six stared blankly at her.

"We needed every soldier we could get, why would we stop anyone from enlisting?"

"Guessing you don't have much experience with bigots then." Velvet said until she noticed the look Six was giving her.

"The Covenant are on a genocidal crusade against all of humanity, I have dealt with bigots." The Spartan said flatly.

"Right... sorry." Velvet muttered.

"That is… Fine, you didn't… erm…" Six sighed deeply. "I just wanted to know, how do your rabbit ears work, are they functional?"

Velvet looked hesitant to answer, unsure of herself or perhaps simply confused by what Six was asking. "Yeah they are. All Faunus biology works, I've also got improved night vision and a bit of a fondness for lettuce. Oddly enough though, I can't stand carrots."

As they entered the hotel Six couldn't help but stare at Velvet for a long moment.

"Believe me, if we'd had Faunus in the UNSC, we would have employed them, you sound like nothing but a tactical advantage."

"Oh, was that a complement?" Velvet asked, one ear raised and one lowered.

"I… I was simply stating a fact…" Six muttered before she was saved from the awkward situation by a door sliding open.

"Sure sounded like a complement to me." Coco said, grinning as she looked over at Velvet. "What did the Doctor say, she good?" Gesturing towards the Spartan as she spoke.

"Her arm's working, though serious stress will cause it to break again." Velvet explained, "Coco-"

"Gonna need to take Six for a little talk. Vel you're good with tech, see if you can get us connected. The rain's screwing with our signal." Coco said, beaming as she led the Spartan further down the corridor, leaving the confused Fanus standing there.

"What do you want to talk about, and why do we have to do it here?" Six asked as Coco led her outside to a small garden.

"I wanted to talk to you without the other's listening in or judging." The Beret wearing girl explained, sitting down on the bench, cringing as she realised how wet it was.

"I'll listen." Six said dully, wanting to know what they needed to talk about.

"Firstly, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about your friend." Coco admitted, sheepishly looking at the standing girl. "That wasn't cool of me to talk about her like that."

Six nodded, only to realise Coco was staring at her. Was she supposed to say anything else here? She'd acknowledged the apology. What else was there to do?

Apparently realising Six wanted the conversation to continue, Coco moved on.

"I also need to apologise for attacking you, that was unacceptable behaviour and something I should be above… you just hit some raw nerves with your comments."

Six suspected Coco probably wasn't talking about actual nerve damage as she spoke. It also finally clicked that she was probably meant to say last time.

"I… am fine, you don't have to apologise."

Okay her face indicates that… uh…

We have no idea, do we?

Nope! Still, we said something, that's better right?

"No I really do, though I've got to ask; what's wrong with my boots?" Coco asked, stretching her heels out. Six decided to give her a full and honest critique as she examined every inch of the boots.

"The heels are too tall, they have to be affecting your balance and reduce the amount of surface area you're putting down. In muddy terrain like this it must cause you to sink into the ground. Also, they do not look comfortable to wear long term."

"Yeah, but my Aura cancels all of that out." Coco explained, before looking at the confused Spartan. "Fox said your Aura was weak but, Noble Six, have you ever heard of Aura before?"

"Not as anything credible." Six answered simply. Some of the civilians she'd had to pull out of danger had said something looking out for them, but she doubted that was a reliable source.

"Really, never seen anyone do this before then?" Coco asked, standing up and emitting a brown flash. Noble Six stared in shock as she watched the traces of brown energy dissipate from the girl's body.

"Aura, is that what you call a shield?" Six asked as the glowing stopped.

"I mean, we can use it as a shield, personally I use it for a lot of things. Reinforcing my heels so I don't get blisters, projecting it from my feet to spread my weight out, keeping the cold out. You've seriously never heard of any of this?" Coco asked, Six simply shook her head.

"I needed armour to have an energy shield. How did you do that?" Six asked, wondering how the UNSC could have failed to utilise this, it could have changed the course of the war if every soldier had a personal shield.

"Everyone can do it. There's a chant to activate it, hang on, let me give this a shot." Coco muttered, before walking over to Six and touching her cheek with one hand. "For it is through retribution we achieve victory. Through this, we become a bastion to the innocent, and never falter even before the darkest odds. Infinite in courage and undeterred by death, I release your soul, and give you the power to protect."

The glowing from Coco as she spoke had half managed to convince the Spartan something was going to happen, but it didn't outside of her getting slightly wetter as she stood in the rain.

"Huh, that's… weird. It worked when I did it at Pharos." Coco said blankly, looking at the Spartan who shrugged.

"All you did was say a speech and glowed a bit." Six pointed out, before a thought came to her. "Where did you even get that speech from anyway?"

"Oh, it came from, well it came from you." Coco explained, looking at the confused girl's head tilting she added: "The speech, it comes from the person whose Aura you're trying to spark, I wouldn't worry too much about it, it's usually gibberish anyway. Though it should have done something for you."

"Maybe it's only something you can do if you were born on Remnant." Six offered with a shrug.

"Yeah, maybe…" Coco said in a tone that suggested she didn't believe that was the actual reason. Six didn't dwell on it, they'd gotten sidetracked anyway.

"Anyway, you have apologised and I have explained my distaste for your footwear, are we done here or was there anything else you wanted to say?" Six asked, the professional tone returning to her voice as she spoke.

Asking to be dismissed, that we can do.

"One… Two more things." Coco said quickly. "One, just to check, your problem with my boots has nothing to do with how they look?"

Six stared at her blankly.

"I didn't realise that mattered." Six offered. "I just thought they were impractical and if what you're saying is true you seem to have countered that."

Why does this matter?

I don't fucking know, why are you looking at me?

"Good. Two was the one that mattered; can we work together? Because you're the only one who knows anything about the 'Covenant' group, and we're going to need you. But CFVY is my team, I'm their leader and we have to work together."

"I am willing to try." Six said simply, then upon noticing the look of annoyance she saw materialise on Coco's face, rushed to elaborate. "So far I have been disappointed with your leadership, however I have limited experience with you, so yes I will work with you; however, if you make bad calls or get in my way, I will branch off."

Six felt something as she said her speech, the logic was sound but a small part of her remembered something she'd been told a couple of week's ago on Reach.

'...But we're a team, that lone wolf stuff stays behind.'

Six scrunched up her eyes; it had paid off then, maybe it could here, perhaps she should elaborate before-

"Fox just sent me a message, they've got a connection established with Professor Ozpin. Come on, you're the one who's gotta explain this junk." Coco said, gesturing for Six to follow. Six nodded and walked closely behind, her elaboration could wait, she was this planet's only hope of having any idea what they were up against. She'd let one planet down already, she wasn't going to repeat that mistake.