Chapter 3: Strangers of Fate
SHRESS LA'VDAMEE POV
Shress ran through the human building clutching her bleeding stomach. She was in pain, but it was overshadowed by cold rage. The images kept running through her head, the demon mercilessly cutting into Nodam's throat, right before running Kluan through with his own weapon, a most disgraceful way for one of the Zealot class to die.
Now here she is with the same demon chasing her through this human metal labyrinth of a building. Deep down she couldn't help but be amazed. This demon just took on two Zealots on his own, after injuries and fighting its way through their escort of Grunts and Jackals, and yet here it still stands. If she was a spectator and this was happening in a proper duel, she would have been impressed, but—here when she's the one being chased—she has no doubt that she'll be this creature's next victim.
At the words 'chase' and 'victim', her thoughts flashed back to Kluan's furious outburst: 'We will ambush these creatures and finish this mission, if you are not too much of a coward to complete it!'
She recoiled internally. Kluan may have been wrong about them taking on a group of demons on their own, but here she didn't have many excuses. The demon was hurt and bleeding, probably tired, whereas Shress was injured as well, but she wasn't in too much pain and she had a weapon, while the demon had none. As the reasons cloud her thoughts, her run came to an abrupt stop.
She was a Zealot, and Zealots don't run—especially from a weaker race like the humans. She growled as she remembered her comrades being killed. Kluan wasn't much, but she did feel pain over Nodam's demise and, as a Zealot, she was duty bound to her comrades to avenge their deaths, even if it meant her own.
With newfound resolve, she switched on her active camouflage and slunk into a shadow by the door she just entered. She didn't like dishonorable ambushing, but when faced with a monstrosity like the demon, it was necessary.
She unclipped her sword and readied it for use. She cast a quick glance around. She was in a narrow hallway without cover, and the far entrance doorway appeared locked with her prey running headlong towards her. This was the perfect trap.
She heard the pounding of heavy footsteps approaching and got ready for the attack, crouching in a low launch position.
"For you my brothers," she whispered when she felt the time to strike approaching.
As she finished her silent promise, a blue blur passed by her and came to a screeching stop, no more than a foot away from her. Shress had to fight to keep herself from snarling the word "demon."
One of the creatures that has brought her and other Zealots great shame in the past years of the war now stood in front of her. It was dressed for battle, the armor was clearly human, it lacked the natural curves and pulsing power of Sangheili battle armor, but it did have some sort of power of its own. The clouded glass that replaced the demon's eyes was a bright blue—just like the rest of its body, save a few spots that were colored white. She couldn't help but feel a bit curious when she noticed the alien's blood was red.
They do bleed. Maybe their race and the humans are closely related… She thought. Then she shook her head. This was no time to get distracted, now was the time to strike. She took one last deep breath before jumping from her cover and attempting to slice the head off the monster. Suddenly, it turned and in one single motion caught Shress's sword hand. Wasting no time, her other hand formed into a fist and with a sudden burst of anger, she punched the demon where the blood stained its armor. It didn't go down, but the pressure that was holding the sword back decreased. She jerked her hand out of its grasp and kicked the creature again in the stomach, hitting the wound. This time the demon went into a low crouch. Shress threw herself at it, and they both crashed and slid down the hall about a meter from where the fight began.
Shress was panting heavily, but that did not prevent her from feeling the thrill of victory as she gazed down at the creature caught under her. The demon pushed, kicked and squirmed as it tried to get away, but Shress wouldn't let it, she finally caught one of the monsters that had plagued the Covenant for years, and she had earned the pleasure of destroying it. She repositioned her body. One arm held the demon's arms down while her right raised her sword.
The demon suddenly stopped squirming, its ghastly eyeless creature staring Shress in the face. She couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine. Even when captured, this demon still had an effect on her. But now, it'll no longer trouble her again.
As she raised her sword, the images of this creature gutting her friend Nodam once again flashed in her eyes. How strange fate worked. It took her friend Nodam away from her; now it delivered her his killer. She felt proud and wished Kluan was still alive to see this.
Risking a gloat before sending the monster to oblivion, she leaned forward and said in a cold voice, "I'm going to kill you demon. I'm going to give you a slow, agonizing death." She finished before raising the sword to strike when she was interrupted.
"So what's stopping you?" a voice taunted.
She looked up and around the room looking for the source of the voice. Who was it? Was it one of the Sangheili sergeants from outside? Did Nodam or Kluan survive after all?
"Down here split lip," the voice said again.
Shress's eyes widened as she processed the words slowly. She looked down at the demon. Its opaque, blue glass eye stared back. Did it speak? It couldn't have. No human knew the Sangheili language, so surely their allies, the demons, didn't know either. The demon shouldn't even be talking; it doesn't have a mouth!
She heard a strange cackling emit from the demon as it stared up at her before speaking again, "If you're wondering, it's not too hard to learn Sangheili, especially if one spends five years studying your encrypted messages and interrogating captives."
Shress shuddered—the demon was speaking. Most of the words it said didn't make much sense to her, but one thing did stand out: the humans had been studying them and learning about them. Could the Sangheili in turn study humans and the demons?
No! What you're thinking is heresy! Kill the demon and leave before its brethren come along.
Shress steeled herself and growled, "It does not matter demon. I'm about to kill you, and as a true warrior, a being of my word, I will be keeping my promise to you that your death will be as painful as possible." She raised her sword to make a point.
The demon continued staring up at her before replying, "I thought your kind didn't murder."
She was taken aback by this, "You are my enemy, this is not murder."
"Really?" it asked in a mocking tone, "Doesn't your law say to not give a fellow warrior a fair and honorable duel is a crime equivalent to murder?"
Now Shress was intrigued. Not only did the monster know her language, it also knew her laws as well.
When her silence continued, the demon said, "Well, are you going to murder me or not, Ms. True Warrior?"
Shress let out a snarl. She loathed to admit it, but the demon had the makings and skills of a warrior.
For a monster.
The demon watched as if it was fascinated with her frustration. It spoke once more, "Tell you what Ms. True Warrior, why don't we follow your law?" it said in what she guessed was an innocent voice. "Let me stand, give me an honorable duel and we'll see who kills who."
Shress snarled again, hating the creature for making sense. Every logical fiber of her being was telling her to destroy the creature now, but her honor argued that to do so would conflict with her oath.
I'm a fool
She slowly got up and stepped away from the demon. As soon as it was free, the creature jumped to his feet and got in a ready fighting stance.
Shress took a fighting stance as well but paused and regretfully threw her sword to the wall. The hallway was perfect for an ambush, but for a duel, it was a terrible place to fight.
Units seem to have passed as she waited for the creature to move. Finally wanting to break the tension, she let out a roar and charged at it, and, in turn, the demon charged her. They both clashed into each other. Shress used her longer arms to hold the demon back as she tried to figure out a way to attack. The demon lashed out with a violent kick to her wounded abdomen, causing her to hiss in pain. Her hands slowly fell away, letting the demon quickly jump out of her reach. Before she could retaliate, the demon lept back onto the wall and then sprung off it, sailing clear over Shress's head. Shress tried to turn, but the narrow hallway prevented her from making sudden movements as her shoulder armor clanked noisily into the wall. The demon jumped at her once more. Shress felt herself begin to get yanked clear upward.
Despite the unbelievable feeling of getting thrown around by something smaller than her confusing her mind for a moment, it wasn't long before she felt the impact of her body violently hitting the cold floor.
Stunned by the impact, she was unable to react as the demon seized her throat and squeezed.
Shress flailed around in an attempt to dislodge the creature, but it would not let go. Her vision was already getting dimmer and her lungs started burning. She tried to throw the demon off of her, but her muscles were growing too weak. She was struggling just to stay awake after exerting herself in her panicked frenzy with no way to replenish her quickly diminishing supply of oxygen.
This is it. she thought. This is how I die.
Realizing her death was nearing, Shress closed her eyes and waited for the cold embrace that had taken so many of her friends from her. She felt she was about to finally lose consciousness when the pressure on her neck vanished.
Coughing violently as she sat up and gasped for air, her eyes opened and quickly began scanning the cramped hallway for the demon. The creature was off of her and was walking away as if nothing had happened. Curiosity mixing with fury, she called out towards it, "Wait! What are you doing? You didn't kill me."
The demon stopped, but did not turn around.
"I'm offering you mercy, as is customary correct? If the winning warrior lets the other live, then the other must be the winner's servant indefinitely," it said. Then it turned and saw the look of disbelief on Shress' face. "These are your laws, I should not have to tell you how they work, do I?"
Shress wanted to kill the demon, to growl, to roar, to try and rip it limb from limb, but she couldn't. The demon was correct: to lose in a duel was a disgrace—one that has to be paid through servitude. She never wanted to be indebted to another warrior, especially the demon but by law she has to obey or be disgraced. She trembled at these thoughts.
Shress looked up and saw the demon staring at her waiting for her to speak. She snarled at it and lifted herself from the floor, stood tall, placed a fist over her heart, and bowed. She asked in a cold voice, "What is it that you require me to do now… Sir."
The demon didn't respond, obviously thinking hard.
Maybe he's trying to figure out how to lock me up as a prisoner?
Then he said the last thing she was expecting.
"Can I release you from your servitude?"
She was so startled; she actually felt the room tilt.
"What?" she asked, thinking she misheard the demon.
He shrugged. "I have no use of a Sangheili following me around, and I'll already have a hard time explaining this to my commander," he said sheepishly.
Shress continued staring at the reflective glass that made up the demon's face in stunned disbelief.
Why was the demon letting her go? Why wasn't she being taken prisoner? Why was he not making use of her?
Then she realized he was waiting for a reply. She knew the answer to his question but wanted to ask her own, "Why?" she asked in a soft voice.
The demon turned around and stared back at her. Then he replied, "You have a strong heart, a fighting spirit. I can see it in your eyes—you are an honorable warrior for giving me a chance to duel for my life, and you should be recognized as one."
Shress was speechless. She has been working for so long to hear those words, but she never thought she would hear it from her enemy, a demon no less.
The metal creature continued, "Well I'm not sure if this is how it's done, but I release you from your servitude… however, I have one request for you."
"Yes?" she asked, now unsure what to expect from the demon.
"If we ever meet again in battle, please spare my life, and the life of my team, or any humans if possible, you do owe me a debt for letting you go," he finished.
Shress couldn't argue with that, however, there was no possible way that she could avoid killing humans, and he must know it too, but all she could do was nod.
The demon nodded back and replied, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope we don't see each other again, otherwise it'll be quite awkward," he finished with traces of amusement in his voice. The demon turned to go, but paused again and looked over his shoulder and asked, "Another request. What is your name?"
Shress was astounded, she should never tell the enemy anything about herself. Yet she felt the words leave her mouth without hesitation.
"My name is Shress La' Vdamee," she said with pride, hearing her family name at the end, "It means 'Meant to Be'."
"That's a unique name," the demon said. "My name is Six."
"Six?" Shress asked. "That's a human numeral. It's not a name," she grumbled at the lack of personal information. The demon, Six, turned his head so she couldn't see the blue glass.
A unit passed before he turned back and said, "my name is Michael."
"My-kal," she tried the unfamiliar word on her tongue before asking, "What does that mean?"
Again he turned away as if he wasn't used to these kinds of conversations, "I—I don't know, but it's the name of God's archangel."
"Archangel?" Shress asked, unsure what the word means.
"In one of our religions, our God had servants called angels; one of them turned evil and was against God and all he stood for. Michael the Archangel, the—" Here he seemed to be groping for a word. "Commander of the angels, led his brethren in a fight against the evil one, and threw the evil one out of heaven. Michael I guess was the first hero warrior, and that was whom I was named after."
Shress nodded along with the story, captivated by the human's or demon's religion and what they believed. An awkward silence hung in the air before the demon, Michael, turned one final time and said, "I really must be going." He walked a few feet before stopping and said, "Farwell, Shress La 'Vdamee." And walked out of the room.
"Farwell, Michael," she said as she went the other way, picking up her fallen sword. Despite her being hit, kicked, and nearly killed by the demon—by Michael—she actually felt hopeful that she would see him again.
That blue glass intrigued her in a way she didn't think was possible.
SIX POV
Six pushed open the large doors at the end of the hallway and was met with the barrel of Jorge's massive M247H machine gun.
Upon seeing Six, Jorge lowered the weapon and asked, "Did you get it?"
Six thought carefully before answering, "No, it escaped." Which was the truth he supposed.
Jorge continued staring at Six as if he could see through his white lie. Finally, he turned around and started walking away. After a moment, Six rushed forward to keep up with the giant, but reluctantly decided to stay close behind in an attempt to avoid being asked questions. They picked their way through the throng of corpses—both marines and aliens. Looking around, he found the broken body of the lone marine who he promised to return to.
Silently, he took his dog tags and whispered, "I'm sorry," before catching up with Jorge again.
They walked in silence for a while before Jorge spoke again, "Carter was asking for you. Told me to remind you that you promised not to do any more lone wolfing."
Six couldn't help but feel ashamed. His first day on the team he disobeyed his officer's first order.
Too many years of being a lone wolf.
For some reason, Lieutenant Ambrose, the commander and trainer of the Spartan III's, singled him out and gave him intensive training in Headhunting. He said that Six had a gift that only one other Spartan has: the ability to make his own luck. He spent years fighting both covenant and rebels this way. On his own. Even among his fellow Spartans he still clung to his old skills—his old way of life.
In the end though, Six had no excuse, so he asked, "What did he say about me taking off?"
Jorge replied, "He said no more lone recons."
"Recons?" a confused Six asked. He heard Jorge laughed quietly, "I might be many things, Spartan but I am not a snitch."
Before Six could offer his thanks, they reached the command room, and Jorge spoke into the comm, "We're back, coming in."
Jorge grabbed the handle and pulled the door out of the way, allowing Six to walk in. The room was the same except for the new addition of Energy slices left behind. The girl Jorge found earlier was huddled by the far wall, as still as a statue. Emile was standing guard, while Carter was speaking to Kat as she worked on the damaged computer terminal.
Emile was the first to notice them and said, "Well it's about time, does it really take that long to kill a few Covies?"
Six didn't say anything as Jorge asked, "Anything new?"
"Aside from Carter getting mad at Kat for working too slow again? Nothing major happened when you left," Emile finished.
"Well actually the Covies are gone," Jun voiced said through their comms network, "They pulled out a few minutes ago. Some were picked up by phantom and some ran into the forest."
A few minutes ago? Could it have been Shress who called them back? Zealots were commanding officers after all.
At the thought of Shress, Six began to wonder if it was a good idea to let her go. Zealots were some of the most deadly adversaries in the Covenant's arsenal—every regulation in every military manual screamed at him to terminate the threat while he had the chance. Yet he couldn't bring himself to kill Shress. He had no idea why. Maybe because he felt indebted to her for letting him live. Either way he was hoping he didn't doom humanity by letting her go.
He started to wonder if he should inform Carter, but decided against it. He might already be in hot water with him already; no need in making it worse, and, besides, what Carter doesn't know won't hurt him.
Carter turned to Jorge and jerked his head in the direction of the girl. "Find out what she knows," he ordered.
Jorge turned to the girl and tried speaking to her but she instantly started acting hostile again.. Six watched as Jorge tried a new tactic. He removed his helmet, revealing his greying hair and mustache and spoke in the local language again, preventing Six from eavesdropping. Six couldn't help but chuckle; he was trained to memorize the Sangheili language and speak it with ease, yet here he was having trouble knowing a human language that he grew up hearing during his early days on Reach. Pure irony.
It was clear from the gestures they were discussing the dead elderly man lying on the floor. Maybe she knew him in some way.
Noticing Six watching, Emile said, "Big man forgets what he is sometimes."
Jorge suddenly came out of nowhere, leaned towards Emile and hissed, "She just lost her father," through gritted teeth. Emile playfully leaned away, totally absent of terror. Jorge then turned to Carter and said, "She needs a full psychiatric workup—"
"She's not the only one," Emile scoffed under his breath but was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Before Jorge could say anything Carter spoke up, "lock it up, both of you." He turned to the massive Spartan, "She'll come with us. The body stays here."
Jorge inclined his head, "Thank you sir," he gave Emile a sharp glare before turning to talk to the girl again.
Six returned to scanning the room until he heard Carter, "Noble team, move outside. I need to speak to Holland," he said while removing his helmet and looking at the monitor. Six turned and the team, plus the girl, filed out of the room, but not before he heard Carter, "Sir they're not rebels; they're Covenant. It's the Winter Contingency."
Six was out the door when he heard Holland's reply, "May God help us all."
SHRESS LA'VDAMEE POV
Shress watched from the cover of trees as the strange human flying machines came in. They didn't use electromagnetic technology like the Covenant. The spinning circles on top seemed to be helping it stay in the air. The pilots were hidden by glass, but in the middle of the craft were seats for people to sit. A green demon was seated in one already and was scanning the area for more targets. Shress let out a growl at the sight of the monster.
Or was it a monster?
After meeting Michael, she was no longer sure what to think of the demons.
Are they the destroyers of life as she has seen on the battlefield, or are they really soft hearted and kind?
She needed to archive this event and talk to the shipmaster of this strange revelation. Maybe he could tell her more about these demons.
One of her majors growled, and Shress turned to see what he was looking at. The group of demons emerged from the structure; she was surprised to see there was a young female with them.
Where did she come from?
Shaking the thought off, her focus immediately found Michael, who was walking alongside the youngling, scanning the battleground for threats.
The Sangheili soldiers around Shress began to twitch and grow restless. Despite hearing the horrific tale of their mighty Zealots being killed by a single demon, they were still eager for battle. It took all of Shress's diplomatic skills to order them to fall back earlier than initially planned. Logically speaking, they would be slaughtered in an open assault after the losses they sustained in the earlier battle.
The demons spread out around the two primitive flying vehicles, while the biggest demon, the one who shot Shress, placed the female human in one of the machines. Michael was at the corner closest to the forest; his gaze searched the trees for threats when he saw her. Shress tensed, thinking he was going to attack, but he just stared at Shress, and she stared back into his blue face. One of the demons, another one that was a light blue color, spoke to him. After that he looked away from Shress, astounding her that he didn't tell his comrades of her position.
Shress then noticed a darker blue demon emerge from the building and approach the others. He made a strange hand gesture, and the other demons got in the vehicles, the leader following suit. She watched as the humans ascended into the air, and she again found herself looking into Michael's face as he was lifted up. He then made a strange sign, he held his hand up low so his comrades wouldn't see, and shook it from side to side.
A warning? A sign?
Before she could ponder any further, the vehicles flew away, taking the friendly demon with them. Shress stood in the same spot for a while longer before turning back to her brothers and the few remaining Covenant troops.
"Fall out," she ordered. "We are heading back to the Holy Retribution."
All the soldiers started moving, except for a Sangheili Ultra who asked, "Zealot, was the mission successful. Did you find the location?"
Shamefully Shress shook her head. The sergeant grunted and started walking after the troops, leaving Shress with her thoughts for a moment. She failed to retrieve the much needed data. She turned her head and looked in the direction where the flying vehicles were headed. She stored away the thoughts of the demon Michael before turning and following her brothers back to their campsite.
-Author's Note-
Hello again everyone!
I don't think I have much to say on this AN all things considered. After all, the goal is to just edit, poke and prod the chapters, and try and get to the end as fast as possible. So… *Shrug*
Hope you enjoyed it!
-PyreElegy