Chapter Three

I jumped up, trying to reach the showerhead. It was eight feet up. Built to accommodate SPARTANS taller than I could ever dream of being.

John's amusement was palpable. He grabbed the showerhead and handed it to me.

"Thanks." I offered him a smile.

"Short."

"I am not." I turned the showerhead on and sprayed it in the general direction of his face. "Spartan Town is just big."

He yanked the nozzle out of my hand and dowsed me in cold water. I shrieked, arching my back to get away from the icy spray.

I surrounded the showerhead in ultrasound and pulled it into my hands. "Okay, I'm turning the heat on. How do you do that?"

John had a habit of taking cold showers, just for the hell of it.

He shrugged.

"Chief." There was a voice outside.

I tensed; we were not supposed to be showering together. The amount of time I'd been spending in Spartan Town was suspicious enough.

If Commander Palmer - one of the SPARTAN IVs, and the woman outside of the stall - saw me in here with John, he'd be in big trouble.

"Commander." John straightened up to acknowledge her presence, even if she couldn't see him.

"Where's Clark?"

"I don't know, sir."

My heart was practically palpitating.

She hummed a bit. A short, doubtful sound. "If you find her, tell her the eggheads wanted to see her upstairs."

"Will do, Commander."

I heard her retreating footsteps.

"That was close." I leaned against the cold metal of the wall and held a hand to my chest.

John put a hand on the top of my head. "You should hurry."

"Yeah, I probably should." I ran the now-warm water over my head.

When I was sufficiently soaked I handed John the showerhead and grabbed some shampoo.

"Why do you think they need me up there?" I wondered aloud

"I don't know."

I'd already visited Professor Ellen Anders yesterday. It had been a somewhat tearful reunion; I really liked her. I was glad to see her again.

But she hadn't given any indication that I would be needed again.

I washed the shampoo out of my hair and grabbed the body wash. "Maybe it's not Ellen. There are a lot of scientists on board."

John didn't respond. He did turn the showerhead back towards me once I was covered in suds. I ran my hand down his arm in thanks.

"Okay." I stepped into the front of the stall and began drying myself off. "I'll just go straight to Ellen. If it's not her, she can pro-probably tell me who it is."

I saw John's silhouette nod from within the shower.

My undersuit came on first. It was different; Ellen had made a few changes as soon as she realized I was still alive.

It was still going under my old armor, but I had an undersuit and a biosuit. Kind of like the new, GEN2, MJOLNIR armor had an undersuit and a techsuit. My biosuit wasn't as thick as the SPARTANs' new techsuits, but it was pretty heavy.

To me, at least.

Since the UNSC was planning on deploying me to help with any artifacts that couldn't be brought on board the ship, they wanted me as battle-ready as the SPARTANs. That meant walking around in an undersuit. Of course, I was allowed to wear pants over it, like everyone else.

But no one said they had to be the boring grey cargo pants provided.

I pulled my yellow sweatpants up and tied them. "I wanted to talk to Ellen anyways. I missed her."

Then I reattached my ileostomy bag. There was a hole in my undersuit that lined up with it, and when the bag was off I could see the little stoma.

I didn't always shower with the bag off, but I liked to do so regularly to keep the skin around it clean. It was covered in adhesive most of the time.

Once the bag was secure I slid on the pink fabric cover, which was decorated with little avocados.

I wasn't a soldier, after all. What were they going to do? Say it was immature?

Hell yeah it was.

I tugged my boots on and turned to face John. He was standing in the doorway between the shower and the front of the stall, watching me out of the corner of his eye even as he washed himself.

"I'm gonna go," I said. "Love you."

His mind brushed against me as I dissolved my body. His love was immense and palpable and, for the first time in a while, not overshadowed by fear.

Ellen had, in the time John and I had been in cryosleep, started to study xenomechanical engineering under Dr. Henry Glassman. She was even certified to run a few studies on her own now.

She said she wanted to expand beyond xenobiology, and see how the mechanics tied into my powers. That hadn't been her motivation to expand into mechanics, but her expansion would probably be useful in understanding my powers in the future.

I appeared in her spacious laboratory, full of huge machines and rows and rows of computers.

"Oh! Tawny, good." Professor Ellen Anders was behind me. "Come here, I want you to look at this."

"What is it?" I brushed my wet bangs aside and walked up to a small piece of metal.

It wasn't even a foot long in any direction, just floating like a chunk of debris in a small gravity field. I stared down at it, feeling a pulse.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Ellen said. "Whatever it is, it reacted to your presence yesterday."

This thing, this relic, it was deeply connected to the Domain. It was older than a lot of things I'd seen. And I'd seen a lot of old things on Requiem.

Ellen's words fully hit me.

I shook my head to clear it. "It...what?"

"I was looking over the scans. It's activity went from next to nothing to so high that it triggered an alert." She crossed her arms and looked down at the artifact. "Look, it's doing something now."

I found it impossible to draw my eyes away from the trembling shard. The pulse became even more captivating.

"I can't tell what it's doing. But it's...it's connected to the Domain," I assured her.

It was like I was in a trance. My eyes were stuck on the grimy artifact; they wouldn't - couldn't - move to anything else.

Ellen looked from me to the metal. "So could you use the Domain to figure out what it is?"

My head shot up. "Yes. Yeah, I-I can do that. I haven't...the Domain was weak on Requiem. I haven't been back in a while."

"What are you waiting for? There's a bench in the back, if you want to lay down."

"Thanks." A grin spread across my face.

I was going back into the Domain, after so long.

The bench wasn't the most comfortable, being made of metal, but it was a lot better than laying on the ground.

My back shifted, trying to keep some of the pressure off of my shoulder blades, and I closed my eyes. A heavy breath blew out of my mouth.

The Domain.

I could picture it. Not clearly - the Domain was more an emotion than a visual presence in my mind - but well enough. Tall, arching halls. Foggy rooms.

The Warden Eternal was somewhere in there. I missed him.

I felt my mind sinking into the Domain.

Something clicked.

The Domain hadn't been able to reach me before. It had apparently been trying, ever since John and I arrived back on Earth.

But being in a place where it was so weak, combined with our inactivity due to cryosleep, had left a gap in my connection to it.

There was probably a similar problem with its connection to John.

But when I tried to fully enter the Domain, something happened. The bond restored.

It accepted me, surrounding my mind.

I was in the hallowed halls of the Domain once more. They towered above me, fading from sight. Intricate beams arched up to support the walls. Massive doorways cut out of the hallway, each a room full of knowledge.

"Warden?" I looked around. "Warden, where are you?"

He was behind me. "Tawny."

"Warden! It's been forever!"

"In your perception of time, perhaps. Years are mere moments to me."

I nodded. "I-I never thought about that. Good point."

Warden was focused. "You seek knowledge."

"Yeah, I do."

"And the Domain calls you to it."

I could feel the pulse. It was leading me towards a door.

I turned to the Warden. "I...I'll be right back, o-okay?"

He nodded.

So I walked into the doorway. My feet, in the strange Forerunner boots, tapped against the stone-like floor and echoed a bit.

Once in the room it showed me the shard of an artifact outside. Then, glowing, ghostly pieces seemed to fall in around it. Creating something.

A machine of some sort.

Someone in ancient armor stepped forward and placed their hand on the sphere in the front of the machine. A Forerunner. Their body relaxed when they touched the machine.

Then I felt the imitation of their presence enter the Domain.

Words were whispered in my mind, in a not-quite-recognizable voice that gave me long-unused knowledge.

Then the Domain kicked me out.

oOOOOo

Author's Note: Hi guys! Sorry this chapter is so short, I promise I'm working on content. I've got big plans for Tawny and John :)