Chapter Five

Blue Team and I were sitting in the Spartan Town mess hall. I'd gotten my food upstairs - the portion sizes down here were unbelievable - and teleported down to meet them.

I'd been relieved to see them again, and my relief was nothing next to the elation John had masked so convincingly when he was reunited with his siblings.

They looked a little different. Of course, that was to be expected. From a biological standpoint, they were about three years older than John now.

They all had facial scars from the augmentations, like John. Down their cheekbones and across their noses in an unforgiving line. But they looked more faded than John's facial scar.

Kelly explained that, according to her physician, some of the augmentation scars would start to go away as they aged. Which made sense, of course, I just hadn't thought about it.

We were talking over our food about this newly-discovered race. The "most exalted ones" the Forerunners mentioned in the artifact.

I'd gone into the Domain and talked to First-Light about them, not that she knew much beyond myths.

"And what did she tell you?" Kelly picked up a spoonful of rice, but she didn't eat it yet.

I shrugged. "Apparently, there was an ancient race called the Precursors. They made the Domain."

Fred sounded incredulous. "How?"

"I'm not sure. They were way more advanced than even the Forerunners. So much so, the Forerunners worshipped them like gods. But they didn't really know much about them."

I looked down at my food, wishing the Domain could tell me about it's mysterious makers.

"No one knows much about them," I continued. "The Warden doesn't. The Domain doesn't even know anything about them. The last memories it had of them were destroyed when the Forerunners fired Halo."

"Back to these terminals," Linda was quick to course-correct, "you think they can take regular people into the Domain."

"I-in theory." I twirled my fork on my tray. "John, you remember what happened on Requiem? When we met the Librarian's imprint? These are similar to that, but instead of-of wherever that took us, it would open minds to the Domain."

"It sounds risky."

I shrugged at Linda's dry tone. "It worked well enough for the Forerunners. We-we're going to try to rebuild one first, not make one. That way, we have something that's already tried and true when we actually b-build one of our own."

"The professor is already talking with Lasky about prioritizing any artifacts that match the terminal's description," John explained to the rest of Blue Team. "When we arrive on Reach, it's our job to secure as many as possible."

Reach had only been partially glassed by the Covenant. After discovering the presence of a Forerunner artifact on Earth, they'd made haste to get there before we did, and they had done a rush job with Reach.

They hadn't known that Earth was our home world. They didn't even know humans were on Earth at all. So they'd been caught completely off guard by our presence.

It was the only reason Earth didn't fall to their might, and that was both terrifying and humbling.

"Ms. Clark," there was an irate voice behind me.

I turned to see Agent Ilana Valha, my liaison to ONI.

Before we'd gone into the ice, both John and I had been with ONI. He was in their Special Warfare group with the rest of the SPARTANs, and I was classified as a Civilian Consultant.

Now that SPARTAN Operations was a thing, an entirely separate and unique branch, the Office of Naval Intelligence didn't have much or any say in what Blue Team did.

But I wasn't a SPARTAN. I just worked closely with them; I was still with the Office. So I had a liaison to ONI, and she was very rude and very loyal to her treacherous bosses.

But I pushed my annoyance and hers down and greeted her kindly. "Hi, Agent Valha."

"Mind explaining to me why one of our xenobiologists is working on a piece of experimental Forerunner tech?" she exploded. "And why you're spearheading that effort?"

"I-I just- Professor Anders and I decided to work on it on the side." I looked up at her pleadingly. "It could help humanity so much!"

But Agent Valha didn't care much about helping humanity; she was an ONI dog through-and-through. "Really? How?"

I had turned fully around on the bench, so John was now on my left instead of my right. I reached down and took his hand; Valha's emotional state was very aggressive, and I couldn't tell if it was making me more exhausted or more aggressive.

Some of both, probably.

John ran his massive thumb over the back of my hand.

"The dev- the device we're working on could give anyone access to the Domain," I explained to Valha. "We could learn so much."

Valha wasn't too worried about humanity being able to learn. But she did realize, after a moment of thought, that access to something like the Domain could be very beneficial to an intelligence organization.

So, feigning like she was still upset, she said, "The project is entirely unsanctioned. That could get both of you in trouble."

"We didn't mean anything by it," I pleaded. I didn't want Ellen to get in trouble for something I was doing.

Valha shook her head and turned on her heel. "I'll see what I can do with this."

She marched out of the SPARTAN mess hall with a straight spine and a hint of jealousy as she passed supersoldier after supersoldier.

When she was definitely out of earshot Kelly snarked, "Well, she's charming."

oOOOo

I'd taken an artifact back to John's room.

Ellen assured me that we were the only ones working on this - despite the other shipboard scientists' desperation to hop aboard with us - so no one would miss it.

The artifact was on the desk. I was sitting in front of it with my eyes closed. Meditating on the artifact. Feeling the artifact. My mind was nothing but the artifact.

"Tawny?" John was right behind me.

I jumped a bit. "Oh, hi John. Sorry, I got a bit carried away."

I pushed myself to my feet and looked down on the metal chunk.

"It's part of the terminal's power regulator," I explained. "Apparently, the earlier versions of this thing had overcharging problems. It...it wasn't pretty."

Then I returned my attention to the artifact, putting my hand on it. My face was serious.

"So I have to make sure this isn't one of those early versions."

He walked up, wrapping his arms around me as I continued.

"Hopefully, this won't be a problem. If it is…" I turned my head to look at him. "How long will it take us to leave for Reach? Maybe we can find a full terminus somewhere down there."

"We're leaving in three days."

With the new slipspace technology that had been created during our little nap, we could go almost anywhere in the entire galaxy in just one day.

And if we were to leave in three days, we would get there on...July 12th.

Hey, that was the day after my 22nd birthday.

I refocused. "Good. I swear, of all the information I can find on this, none of it helps me find out if it's safe."

John leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

"I love you." I craned my neck to look straight up at him. He was still pressed against my back; his presence was warm and comforting.

He had been about to straighten up, but he stopped. His lips met mine for a moment. "I love you, too."

I leaned into him even as my eyes returned to the artifact. He tightened his arms around me, pressing himself into my back.

We stood like that for some time as I tried to sort through the knowledge this chunk had. It was like trying to make sense of a hazy memory.

John's arms tightened around me. Then they loosened. He knelt behind me, so that we were on more equal footing, and kissed my cheek.

I half-turned my head, catching his lips in a brief kiss.

Then my attention returned to the shard, but only partially. I was getting bored, and John's body felt so good pressed against mine.

My frustration was mounting; there was nothing useful in this shard. Everything felt so repetitive and mundane. This power regulator, whether it had worked or not, was very boring.

But I couldn't just call it quits, because what if there was something important in here?

Maybe I should call it quits, for now. Come back to this with a fresh mind in the morning.

And John agreed.

I felt his lips on my neck.

"I'm busy." I shrugged him away in an immense display of willpower; I wanted to be with him, but if I couldn't make sure that this was safe I'd be responsible for a lot of pain.

"You're frustrated." He spoke right against my skin.

I suppressed a shiver. "So?"

He ran a hand down my arm. "Take a break."

"Isn't that my line?" I turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Sue me," he said with an endearing and mischievous grin.

But he did halt his advances, on the off chance that I really wasn't in the mood.

I could only refocus on the artifact for so long. With John pressing against me - not in a sexual way, but still - and my desire having already been burning…

I turned to John, looking up at him with doe eyes. "Maybe I could take a bit of a break."

A smile bloomed on his face. I would do anything to see his smile.

His hand came up, cupping my chin. It wandered down. Ghosting over my throat. My collarbone. My stomach. Lower.

He surged forward, locking his lips against mine. His arms were around me again. I was tight against him, unable to pull away. Not that I wanted to.

If I wanted him to, he would let me go immediately.

My eyes were closed as I deepened the kiss. I ran my hands over his hair, down the back of his head. Over the cold metal of his neural lace.

Down his neck. Even there, the superhuman strength of his muscles was apparent. They twitched under my fingers.

I trailed my fingers over his shoulder - right where it met his neck - and down his chest. They stayed there for a while, even when we'd both pulled away to breathe.

I kissed John's nose. "I love you."

"I love you." His lips pressed against my chin as I pulled away.

Then they met my own again. His lips were a bit chapped - so were mine - but they felt amazing.

I felt his fingers brush against the neck of my biosuit. He pulled it down to my waist. The cold air made me shiver, but not as much as when John's lips began moving down my body.

oOOOo

John was warm beneath me. He was awake, and he knew that I was now awake, but both of us were happy to pretend we were sleeping.

His bare chest was soft under my cheek.

I hummed happily, sleepily. "Good morning."

John's hand came up, resting in the dip of my back. "Morning."

"So what happens if Palmer walks in for an inspection right now?" I grinned.

He knew she wasn't about to. Even as I spoke, I'd reached out to make sure no one was approaching his room.

I could feel how many people weren't about to walk in, and so could he in extension.

I shifted a bit, resting my chin on John's chest and looking up at him. "I love you."

"I love you too."

I just looked up at him for a few minutes. Felt him in the bond. Felt his skin against mine.

And I was at peace.

oOOOOo

Author's Note: Hi guys! It's been a crazy week! Also I think maybeImightbenonbinary I have no idea what my gender is and I'm so confused and a little scared because anything other than cis Will Not Be Accepted in my house or my community. Part of me is afraid that I'm making the dysphoria up and another part of me is scared I'm saying that as an excuse to 'stay cis' because being Bi is already too much considering where I live. Have you ever felt like the emotional embodiment of a frustrated keysmash because that's my mood rn