Chapter Fourteen

Tidet and I were walking again. On the outer edge of the complex, on a sidewalk occasionally peppered with soldiers and SPARTANs.

It was sunset, and the blue sun of Paris IV was dying the horizon purple. Our shift was almost up.

And the blue sun made me nostalgic for home.

I was worried. I could feel John through the bond, and he felt guilty.

He was feeling down. He absolutely refused to let it show, but he couldn't hide it from me. Old regrets and traumas stretching back further than he could remember...he still hadn't slept.

It didn't help that we were in separate hotel rooms. And Daes was very, very strict. She made it clear that we were to stay in our own rooms, so that was where John had carried my sleeping form when he'd finished talking with Thel.

So now John was depressed and exhausted. He only needed a few hours of sleep every forty-eight hours, but it had been four days since he last slept.

I didn't know how to help him.

There was a disturbance on the sidewalk, a few hundred feet up. I'd been so caught up in my concern that I hadn't noticed until it was all but over.

Tidet and I shared a glance and ran to find out what was happening.

Well, he was jogging. But he had long legs and extra hearts, so I had to run to keep up.

Leon, a SPARTAN II I didn't know very well, was pinning an enraged woman to the ground. His partner, a IV, was cuffing another woman. Both women were armed and struggling.

I sent out a pulse of exhaustion, targeting the women. They stopped struggling. The lady in the IV's hands fell limp.

The two SPARTANs looked up at us. Leon, having spent much more time around John than the IV, recognized me a moment before his partner.

"Clark, can you find out what they wanted?" he asked.

I knelt beside the dishevelled and unconscious woman on the ground in front of him. "Yeah. W-what happened?"

The SPARTAN IV laid his prisoner down next to the other. "These two broke through the traffic block and tried to hightail it into the complex. God knows why."

"Give me just a second. I-I can find out."

I crossed my legs and leaned forward a bit. Fell into the woman's mind. Slid past the dream she was in and towards her memories.

I - she, Lunara Del Campo - was nervous. Excited. Angry.

Kill the Arbiter.

Get in and kill him. Load up on weapons.

So what if I'm a civilian? This vengeance is meant to be; I'll succeed no matter what. I have to.

They killed my baby sister.

But Elise is helping me. They killed her parents. They killed everyone.

We can go in together and kill him.

Make them pay for how they hurt us.

I retreated back into my own mind. I didn't say anything for a moment. The heartache that Lunara had been trying to mask with rage…it hurt to feel it. There was so much pain.

She'd lost so much in the war. Everything. Her home, her family.

People she would never see again. People who had died so painfully, so slowly. And she was still here.

She had every right to be angry.

But that didn't mean she could kill Thel.

I took a breath and pulled my helmet off. "They were...trying to get in and kill the Arbiter."

I noted Tidet's immediate rage, and how well he kept a lid on it.

Two military police, who'd showed up when the scuffle started, knelt beside the women and started pulling their weapons off of their bodies.

"Much appreciated, ma'am." One of them smiled at me as he handed a revolver to his partner.

Leon pushed himself to his feet. "Thanks."

"No problem." I smiled up at him but it didn't feel like it reached my eyes.

Tidet shifted. "I suggest we continue our path, lest we take more time than is needed."

I pushed myself to my feet. "O-okay."

I shot Leon and his partner a worried glance.

"Don't worry," the IV waved me away, "we can handle this."

With a bit of a nod, I pulled my helmet on. Then I fell into step beside Tidet as he continued down the sidewalk.

I checked my HUD; John and Kelly were in a small room somewhere in the dome. Linda and Fred were near the center of the atrium. They were all safe.

But John had sensed when I dipped into Lunara's mind.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I kept scanning our surroundings with my eyes. "Yeah, I'm okay. Some people tried to break in, but Leon and a IV handled it."

John pulled back into his own mind, lingering affectionately for a moment. I made sure he felt my love before he left.

I'd meant to ask if he was okay, but he felt my intentions and shied away.

Besides, I already knew the answer.

We turned onto a sidewalk to our right, ready to patrol the grassy area between the dome and the circles of buildings on the outer edge of the complex.

I reached my hand up and ran my fingertips through a branch on a small tree lining the path. "Does it feel different?"

"Does what feel different?" Tidet asked.

I cleared my throat and wondered if I was talking about something that was none of my business. "Having a leader that isn't a cultist."

"Ah." Tidet thought for a moment or two. "The Arbiter is as wise as he is strong. The Prophets were neither. Sanghelios is thriving under our new leadership, and all who are wise rejoice."

"Yeah, I-I heard that there were Covenant remnants trying to cause trouble. I didn't think they had many Sangheili."

"The traitor groups are largely led by Sangheili." Tidet snorted, but it sounded bitter. "Their bloodlines are weak."

A bitter smile bloomed under my helmet. "Yeah."

"The Arbiter has accredited the war's swift end to you." Tidet bumped my shoulder with his wrist.

"He has?" I looked up at him. "B-but it wasn't me. Not alone."

"You are the one who unveiled the truth, and showed us the error of the Prophets."

"Well...well, yeah, I guess. But it wasn't a big deal. I-it could have been anyone."

Tidet shrugged.

We continued around the dome, which was at least a thousand feet in diameter. I could look to our right and see inside.

We were next to a room full of Sangheili. Only a few of them were looking outside.

Fred and Linda were in there, though. I could see them on my HUD, and when a particularly huge Sangheili shifted I could see them through the wall.

They saw us, too.

I lifted a hand and waved. "Hi, guys!"

Linda nodded and Fred waved back.

"How does it look out there?" Fred asked.

I kept walking, but I could feel their eyes on me through the clear wall. "Leon and his friend stopped two women trying to kill Thel."

"Anything interesting about them?" Linda's voice was sharp.

"Not really," I replied. "They were two civilians who wanted to get revenge for the war."

And I left it at that. Lunara's heartache was still tugging at my chest a bit, and it felt wrong to divulge her trauma.

Tidet paused when we passed another pair of SPARTANs. "SPARTAN Riley, I am surprised and pleased to see you here."

One of the SPARTANs, a woman in grey and red armor, clapped his shoulder.

"Ranger 'Mon!" she exclaimed in a scratchy-but-pleasant voice. "I didn't know you were down here!"

He smiled a bit, which looked like a snarl with all of his conical teeth. "How fortuitous that our paths have crossed. Perhaps you would like to visit a local mealtime establishment with me."

Riley started walking away with her partner. "Sorry, doll, I can't. I'm off at oh-six-hundred."

So she had the night shift.

"How about lunch?" she offered over her shoulder.

Tidet nodded. "I await the hour."

We started walking again.

"She's nice," I said.

"Indeed." I could hear the smile in his voice.

We were almost off-duty. We just had to complete a loop around the dome, and we were free to go back to the hotel or the tarmac and board a Pelican back to Infinity.

It was sundown, and the day's talks had gone well. So well, in fact, that they were over. All that was left to do was select a glassed star system and start the reconstruction.

In a parking lot, on our left and across the sidewalk from the dome, news crews were busy packing their equipment. Lots and lots of people, including some of the ambassadors, were preparing to go back home.

Tidet and I were walking directly towards the sun.

The bottom of the sunset was a deep blue now, but very distinctly blue and not black. The light blue sun, which was nearly the same shade as the sun of my home planet, was dipping into the horizon.

"I missed blue sunsets," I whispered fondly.

Tidet glanced down at me. "Why is that?"

"The sun on my home world is blue." I looked up at the sunset. "I-I was on Earth a few mo- a few years ago. The sun was orange. It was...weird."

He nodded. "The sun on Sanghelios is very different from this one."

"You know, they say stuff like that can affect the psychology of a person," I said. "What color you grow up under."

"In what way?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I-I guess some colors feel different, emotionally. People from blue suns tend to be calmer. I read an a- an article about it once."

He hummed thoughtfully.

We were walking along the west side of the dome, with our shoulders to the sunset. I could look on my HUD and see Linda and Fred walking out of the building.

They walked onto the sidewalk that Tidet and I had just been on, making their way towards the tarmac. They just got done with their shift.

John and Kelly were stationary near the center of the atrium. They hadn't moved yet, but they probably would soon.

I turned my face to the left, looking around Tidet, and tried to memorize the grandeur of the sunset. I would have to draw it so that I could remember it well.

We passed another pair of SPARTANs. They were chipper. They must have just started their shift.

It was late enough now that about half of the patrols were night-shifters and half were weary day-shifters. Tidet and I were the latter, though I wouldn't call him weary.

I, on the other hand, was sore. My legs hurt with every step, and my feet felt as if they were flat on the bottom.

And my left knee had been hurting for several hours now. A stubborn pain that was just too severe to tune completely out.

I couldn't wait to get back to Infinity and take my armor off. It was comfortable, but I vastly preferred tall socks and soft dresses.

Tidet and I followed the curved path until our backs were to the sun. Before that, though, I turned and took a snapshot of the sunset.

For reference, of course.

I took a moment to send the image to my datapad before I caught up with Tidet.

"Are you well?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just wanted t-to take a picture of the sunset."

He nodded.

Kelly and John were on the move; I could see it on my HUD. They were making their way out of the dome and down the path, which was now directly across the atrium from Tidet and I.

We only had a little ways to go before we, too, were done.

It wasn't hard to hide the pain in my step from normal people, even hypervigilant soldiers, but it was impossible to hide it from SPARTANs or Sangheili. They could see so much better than even the most well-trained unaugmented sniper.

Tidet had been keeping tabs on me, though. And as long as my limp wasn't too obvious, which was to say it was invisible to any regular human, he wasn't too concerned.

Christ, I couldn't wait to sit down.

There was a quartet of two SPARTANs and two Sangheili ahead. They were walking in two pairs to avoid taking up the entire sidewalk.

We exchanged nods between our groups as we continued on our own ways.

I took a sharp breath when my left knee popped. It was small, and I didn't hear it so much as feel it, but it hurt nonetheless.

Tidet's head snapped down to me. "What was that?"

A tight hum, almost a pained laugh, reeded through my pursed lips.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." I put my hands on my hips and looked up at the sky.

I shifted my weight to my right leg and started working my left leg.

"God," I breathed. "I'm good. Just...just my knee. We're almost done anyway."

"Are you certain?" Tidet sounded concerned.

I nodded. "Yep."

He didn't start walking, though.

I kicked my leg a few more times in an attempt to pop my knee again. But it refused to yield.

So, with a bit of a preparatory breath, I started walking again. It hurt, and I turned my external speakers off to hide my occasional auditory wince, but I could manage.

So Tidet started walking, too. He stayed a bit behind me to be safe.

The limp was harder to hide now.

John touched me through the bond. "Tawny?"

"I'm fine," I assured him.

He brushed against me with his doubts and his concern.

"Really." I took a breath as my knee shifted again. "It's happened before."

John didn't like it, but there was nothing he could do. So he resigned himself to keep an eye on my pain, and step in if he had to, as he made his way towards the tarmac.

I could feel his thoughts.

I shook my head. "Don't wait behind for me. I'll be at least fifteen more minutes down here."

He didn't like that idea, either.

But he'd reached the tarmac, and I could feel through him that the rest of Blue Team and several SPARTAN IVs were ready to leave.

I certainly wasn't going to be a holdup for anyone.

So, reluctantly, John climbed into the Pelican and prepped for takeoff.

Tidet and I followed the curve to the last side of the dome, with the sunset completely filtered through paned walls. I could see, so far ahead of us, as John's Pelican took off.

It turned, the engines screaming and the wings shifting, and shot up into the atmosphere.

I would be on the next one out, hopefully.

No one had confirmed anything, but rumor had it that we were immediately departing for another assignment tomorrow.

The strict curfew of 0600 tomorrow reinforced the rumors. They wanted everyone aboard quickly and early.

My knee popped again. I sucked in a breath, but with my helmet mic muted Tidet didn't hear it. He undoubtedly heard my knee.

But he didn't say anything. I said I was fine, and he would leave it at that.

And I was. This happened all the time; if I wasn't fine now then I wouldn't be fine for so much of my life.

So I was fine.

The pain still sucked. It was almost like back on Requiem, when my ankle had been fractured. I'd walked, ran, and fought on that ankle for three days. With a chip of bone pulled loose.

So this was alright. It was, comparatively, nothing. Not even a real injury; I had just been walking.

Tidet pushed himself forward to walk beside me, instead of behind me. "Are you certain your leg is not hindering you?"

I nodded and switched my speakers on. "I-I'm alright."

We just had to finish the loop and walk back up the pathway. Then we were homeward bound.

But the path between the dome and the outer complexes was long. Longer than the diameter of the dome, which was incredibly wide.

I would be fine.

Then, when we reached the path towards the buildings and the tarmac, my knee popped once again.

"Oh, Jesus Christ." I wrapped myself in ultrasound and floated a few inches in the air.

The relief was nearly instant.

The tension faded from my body. "I should have done this earlier."

Tidet regarded me for a moment. He'd known about my powers, of course, but he hadn't really seen them.

Then he internally shook himself and fell back into step.

So together we moved towards the circle of buildings surrounding the tarmac.

"If I may venture, how do your abilities work?" he asked.

I straightened my knee out, trying to get it to shift into a more comfortable position. "It's ultrasonic waves. They- I can control them."

"What of the biology?" he asked. "Are the powers in your mind?"

"I...I don't know." I looked down thoughtfully. "Dr. Halsey used to scan my brain once a week, when she was studying me. She didn't- she never found anything. But Professor Anders thinks it might be something hidden in my DNA."

"So, it is in your bloodline?"

"Yeah, an ancient Forerunner manipulated the DNA of my ancestors to culminate in me and my abilities."

Tidet didn't say anything, but I could feel that he was struggling to reconcile the cultist belief that Forerunners hated humans with the fact that a Forerunner had given me, a human, such abilities.

Cultist beliefs aside it was a little crazy, when I said it aloud.

"Apologies if this is too blunt, but what makes you so special as to inherit these abilities?" Tidet asked.

"I know what you mean," I reassured him. "A-and I know, it sounds really conceited of me to say that I was so planned. But she did it so that I could defeat the Didact."

"Who is the Didact?"

My stomach pitted.

I could still feel him thumbing through my mind, like I was a book for him to read. Taking my most precious and intimate moments for himself. Seeing the most embarrassing things I've done, my lowest points. All of it, as if I was a mere study to him.

"He...he's a Forerunner, too," I said quietly. "A-a warrior. He wanted to-to enslave humanity. He's responsible for New Phoenix."

Tidet said nothing but his face shifted, and I could feel his shock.

"Yeah. But...he's dead now." I straightened my spine. "S-so he can't hurt anyone else."

We reached the first few buildings encircling the tarmac.

Tidet stopped at a large grey building. "This is where we part. I wish you well, Tawny Clark"

I landed, careful to keep most of my weight off of my left leg, and pulled my helmet off. "And you, Tidet 'Mon."

There was a group of SPARTANs waiting on the tarmac, by a Pelican that had yet to lower its ramp.

I knew them; August and Robert. They were SPARTAN IIs, Leon's teammates.

Robert nodded to me when I limped up.

August pulled her helmet off, revealing brown hair and a burn-scarred face. "What happened to you?"

I fell in beside them and shifted my weight to my right leg. "Nothing."

August raised a brow but said nothing.

The Pelican's ramp lowered with a hiss. A few SPARTANs filed out.

A bright-looking pilot stood at the top of the ramp. "All aboard!"

oOOOOo

Author's Note: Sorry guys, yesterday was kind of absolutely bonkers and I couldn't update. But I'm back! Anyways yeah Tawny makes friends with everyone and Tidet is the chillest Elite in existence. He was too young to actually fight in the Human-Covenant War but he had been training his whole life to, so he was as brainwashed as everyone else before the war ended

Also I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to try and find out what the Fuck is up with my chronic pain so ig wish me luck or something but you don't have to

I love you guys!

(EDIT: Hi guys! So I'm writing a RvB fanfiction, which I may have mentioned a few chapters ago. I don't know if I'm ever going to publish it, as I want to wait until it's complete to post it, but I might post it in the future. The Main Character is a Sikh woman and I am not Sikh. I don't want to be disrespectful or innaccurate, so if any of you guys know about Sikhism or are Sikh, and would be willing to help me, I would appreciate it. I've done my own research but I know that research is no substitute for real-life experience, and my main goal here is to keep the character's experience with religion as accurate and respectful as I can. Thanks!)