Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work.

An Assembly Hall on the Planet Reach

Joy's POV

She didn't know what was going on but she was pretty sure this wasn't how things were supposed to go after you got adopted into a family.

She now began to wonder if she should've paid more attention to Alex when he tried to warn her that Mister and Missus Locke weren't all they were pretending to be. She hadn't seen Mister Locke since they left Arcadia but Missus Locke just said that he had to go to work and that she'd see him the next time he got some free time. She'd been a bit disappointed since Missus Locke hadn't been all that interested in talking to her but having Alex sitting next to her had helped. Then she got to experience something that everyone who went on long interstellar journeys: cryogenic suspension. She didn't understand any more than what they showed in vids but basically, even with the invention of slip space travel, humans wouldn't get very far travelling normally. Cryogenic suspension kept people from aging by slowing down their metabolism so that, even if it took a ship ten years to get to its destination, they wouldn't have aged a day once they were frozen.

After having been through it herself, she could only say that she hated it and didn't want to do it again anytime soon.

Soon after they arrived on a planet called Reach they went down to the planet and went to someplace with a lot of soldiers surrounded by a tall metal fence. This had made her even more uneasy than before but Alex had done his best to comfort her and it was because of him that she hadn't been more unsettled when they'd been herded out of the room and into a much bigger one. A lot of other kids were there about the same age as her and Alex but she didn't recognize them, so she didn't think they were from Avalon or the surrounding area. She wondered what they were there for and soon got a hint when Missus Locke walked into the room dressed in a gray uniform of some kind, followed by a man in similar clothing. Once the two of them reached a platform a ghost woman appeared who looked to be the same age as Missus Locke and she recognized it as an A.I. She'd seen them on TV but never in person.

"As per naval code four-five-eight-one-two you are hereby conscripted into the UNSC special project, code-named SPARTAN II," Missus Clarke said, addressing the entire group of kids. "This will be hard to understand but you cannot return to your parents or to your homes. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies. Your fellow trainees are your family now. There will be a great deal of hardship on the road ahead but I know you will all make it. Rest now. Your training will begin tomorrow."

She didn't like what she was hearing.

She knew she was just a kid and the books she read didn't make her smarter than an adult but she knew that it had to be against some kind of law to turn kids into soldiers. She didn't know how the other kids were brought there but, judging from the black eye and bandage on one of them, it wasn't all willingly. She was about to step forward and tell Missus Locke to send them home or she was going to tell a policeman but Alex's hand gripped her upper arm, stopping her in her tracks. Looking at him, he shook his head 'no' and used the gesture that meant 'be quiet'. A part of her wanted to shake off his hand and do what she wanted but Alex was her friend. He'd always done his best to help her and sometimes took the blame for their pranks when they got caught, even if it was entirely her fault. She owed him. She trusted him. Thus she would keep quiet like he wanted but she'd want an explanation later.

"Chief Petty Officer Mendez? Escort the children to the mess hall," Missus Locke ordered, looking at the man who'd followed her in. "Feed them. Get them to bed."

"Yes, ma'am," Chief Petty Officer Mendez said before turning to the group of kids. "TRAINEES! FALL OUT!"

She started at the sudden yelling by the man directed at her and those around her but she was in no hurry to get him mad only at her, so she walked with the rest of them as they left the big room. Outside of the door there were more men but they were wearing helmets and had guns in their hands, making it impossible for them to run away even if they wanted to. She'd seen Alex try to pick fights with the bigger kids but, while he sometimes won those, she doubted he'd be able to beat any of these adults.

Every step of the way to the mess hall, another word for big dining room, they were put into lines before they were each asked to pick up a tray and then proceeding along a counter. Then food was put onto the tray without any of the people doing it asking what they wanted or whether or not they liked what they were being given. Once they had their food they were herded towards the big tables and made to sit down before the men with guns stepped back, with two going to every way in or out.

There was a lot of looking back and forth between all the kids but all she was doing was checking to see how closely the adults were watching them before turning to Alex.

"Why'd you stop me?" she asked in a whisper. "This isn't right!"

"No it isn't but if they've done this I don't think they're gonna listen to a six year old kid," Alex replied, keeping his voice to a whisper as well. "You make trouble there's no telling what they'd do. If we're going to do anything, we gotta be patient and wait for the best chance. It's just like pulling the pranks back home. You learn where everyone's gonna be, where they're gonna go and more importantly when we can make a move without them realizing it."

Glancing about the room, she decided that he was right.

If these people were willing to steal them from their homes, they'd be willing to do a lot more to keep them from leaving. She also didn't know this place that they were in so she didn't know which direction would get them out of it quickest or how hard it'd be able to get out of it in the first place.

Until they knew more, trying to escape would be stupid and she was NOT stupid.

Looking down at her food, she could tell that whoever made it didn't care about the people eating it. After years of eating Sister Miranda's food and cooking with Alex, she knew what food looked like when someone cared about the ones who'd be eating it. Still, she knew that food could be better than it looked so, picking up her fork, she scooped up a piece of the centerpiece of the meal before putting it into her mouth. It didn't immediately taste bad so she didn't spit it back out but neither was it delicious. It was like that day that she'd been so hungry from playing that she'd just grabbed a bun from the kitchen without putting any butter on it at all and stuffed it in her mouth.

It hadn't been tasty or delicious but it'd done the job of filling her tummy.

At least I recognize the carton of milk, she thought as she opened it up and drank some of it.

There was a piece of fruit as well but she didn't recognize it from the stuff she'd eaten back at the orphanage, though after taking a bite out of it she found it to be a little sweet. She considered this to be a step up from the main part of the meal, so it'd give her something to look forward to the next time she ate.

It wasn't a big meal so it ended relatively soon and the adults that'd herded them in didn't hesitate to move in and get them off their seats and onto their feet. The man, Mendez, started yelling again until everyone was moving quick enough to make him happy. Down hallway after hallway they went until they reached four rooms where they were divided into groups of nineteen, with each group being herded into a room. It was with some relief that Alex was in the same group as her and so, when they settled into their beds, she took comfort in the fact that her best friend wasn't far away.

Deciding that sleep would be better than laying awake thinking about where they were and what was going to happen to them, she did her best to get comfortable. It wasn't hard since the bed wasn't too different from the one she'd had at the orphanage but she still had trouble relaxing with all the unfamiliar sounds and sensations.

She did her best to ignore the stuff that didn't feel right.

"Joy?" Alex asked, whispering so that the adults wouldn't hear him.

"Yeah?" she asked, wondering what he wanted.

"These sheets sure are itchy," he said, sounding like the time he'd worn a sweater that Reverend Mother had given him for Christmas.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at this out of place comment.

The Next Morning

Alex's POV

"ALRIGHT, UP AND ON YOUR FEET!" some man yelled, shocking him from his slumber.

Opening his eyes with reluctance, it took him five seconds to realize that he wasn't at the orphanage and that the person yelling definitely wasn't Reverend Mommy, angry with him about his and Joy's latest prank. For a moment he considered just rolling over and going back to sleep because he could tell without looking at a clock that it was WAY too early in the morning to be doing anything.

"YAAHHHH!" a boy cried out in pain, accompanied by something that reminded him of the sound effect for electricity that he'd seen on one of his Saturday morning cartoons.

This quickly killed any idea of not getting to his feet quickly and, as he did so, he looked in the direction of boy who'd cried out. An adult was shoving the end of a metal rod into him and bits of electricity were bouncing in between the two things coming together. He'd never seen one before but he definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of it anytime soon.

"AAAHHHH!" a girl cried out but it was with a voice he instantly recognized.

Turning his head so quickly he thought he might twist it off, he looked to see one of the adults hitting Joy with one of those pain sticks and before he even knew what he was doing, he was running to her rescue. Using a bed as a springboard he leapt onto the man hurting Joy, wrapping his arms and legs tight around the bad guy, hitting him as hard as he could on the side of the head. His efforts worked insomuch as the man stopped using the pain stick on Joy but then he encountered a problem that occasionally had happened back at the orphanage.

He didn't have any plan for what to do next beyond hitting the man, so he quickly paid for it.

Before he realized what was going on the man backed up really quick and he suddenly found himself hitting a wall back first, knocking the wind clear out of him. Without air the strength in his legs and arms failed, causing him to fall off the man to the ground, gasping for air the entire time. By the time he got enough air back to move it was blown right back out when his world lit up with pain, causing his body to spasm out of control. When the pain started to recede he thought that perhaps that would be the extent of his punishment but then a second later the pain returned, just as horrible as before.

"That's enough, Harper!"

"Yes sir, Chief," 'Harper' said, sounding somewhat reluctant.

A few seconds later he was yanked to his feet and shoved into line with the rest of the kids including Joyce while the man from the big room yesterday walked in front of them.

"I am Chief Petty Officer Mendez," the Chief said as he walked, not looking at any of the kids. "The rest of these men are your instructors. You will do exactly as we tell you at all times."

They weren't like any teachers he'd seen in the vids. They'd never hurt any of their students.

"Showers are aft. You will all wash and then return here to dress," Chief said before kicking open the trunk at the foot of the bed one kid had been sleeping in. "Now get moving! NO slacking! On the double!"

With that all the kids were forced towards the showers, with some of them getting forced to move quicker with a poke from the pain stick in one of the adults' hand. Worried about Harper hitting him again he moved as quickly as he could to the showers so the bad man wouldn't get the chance or the excuse to do it.

It felt funny getting undressed in front of so many others. Back at the Orphanage they each took turns in the bathroom whenever they needed to clean themselves and never were they allowed to go in with someone else. Still, he just treated it like the time they'd gone to the public pool and gone swimming since the suits they'd worn hadn't left much to the imagination. The actual way to get clean was different, too, since it since they all got onto a moving floor kind of like the smaller ones he'd seen at the grocery store that moved the food to the cashiers so they could scan them. It moved in fits and spurts only staying still long enough to get sprayed with soapy water, scrubbed with brushes on metal arms and then rinsed in ice cold water.

He hated that part.

Once they were all done they all ran back out into their room and he went to the trunk at the foot of the bed where he'd been sleeping before opening it up. Inside there were several pairs of underwear, thick socks, sweatpants, a t-shirt and boots like the ones the adults were wearing. They all fit right but, when he looked at the front of his t-shirt, he noticed it had something written on it: Alex-zero-six-nine.

That's not my name, he thought with a frown. My name's Alex Achilles.

Looking around, he saw that the other kids had the same kind of stuff written on their shirts.

James-zero-zero-five, Vinh-zero-three-zero, Kurt-zero-five-one, Kelly-zero-eight-seven…

Do these guys have problems counting or something? he thought as he let go of his shirt and stopped looking around.

"Now OUTSIDE, trainees!" Chief announced in a way that didn't make you want to say 'no'. "Triple time… MARCH!"

All of them ran out of the room, down the hall and out a door that led to the outside, letting him see where they were for the first time with enough light to see clearly with. They were definitely on some kind of army base, he'd seen enough commercials showing what they looked like to know one when he saw one, and there was a really tall wire fence at the edge. At the top of the fence were circles of sharp wires that he was pretty sure neither he or Joy would be able to get past without cutting themselves pretty badly.

So that means tunneling under it or finding out where the gate is.

"You will make five equal-length rows. Fifteen trainees in each row," Chief barked like a dog in a seriously bad mood.

All the kids did their best, him and Joy included, to do what they'd been told to do but a couple of the kids must've been half asleep since they were having problems. The bad teachers and Chief got them in the right places quickly enough, though Harper used his pain stick a little too often.

"Jumping jacks!" Chief commanded in a tone that would not be defied. "Count off to one hundred. Ready… GO!"

A HUNDRED?! he thought with a bit of surprise. I've never done more than twenty-five before.

One boy didn't do jumping jacks and he got hit in the stomach with the pain stick, sending him shaking to the ground before one of the bad teachers told him to get back up and 'get with the program'. Once the boy was able to he did what the rest of them had been told to do. It wasn't easy, even though he was one of the strongest kids back at the orphanage, and by the time he hit one hundred with everyone else he could feel the sweat on his body. It wasn't quite dripping off of him but he'd definitely set a new record for himself.

"Sit-ups!" Chief ordered with barely a couple seconds rest between the last jumping jack and his new command. "Count off to one hundred. NO SLACKING!"

Dropping to the ground he began to do sit-ups and, while feeling a little tired from the jumping jacks, he still wasn't too worried about whether or not he'd be able to do all of them.

"The first crewman who quits gets to run around the compound twice…" Chief said as he walked around the rows, "…and then comes back here and does TWO hundred sit-ups."

Excellent incentive to do his best and do all one hundred.

However, as time went on and sit-ups became deep squats, which then transformed into knee bends, he began to wonder just how much more he'd be able to handle before his body just gave out. Everyone else was in the same boat, with some barely managing to force their bodies to do what they wanted with a fair bit of trembling mixed in. Joy was having it hard from what he could see but this came as no surprise because, even though she joined in the same games he had back at the orphanage, she hadn't taken them as seriously. Still, she had that stubborn look on her face, like she didn't want the bad teachers to get the better of her, so she kept on doing the exercises as best she could.

Eventually, though, the exercises came to an end and the Chief ordered the bad teachers to bring out the water. Now he usually preferred something with a bit more sugar in it but at the moment all he wanted was to quench his thirst, so water would do just fine, thank you very much. Chugging it down it didn't take him long to finish the bottle and, when it was done he thought about grabbing another one but decided not to in the end. Chief probably had more work for them to do and, if he drank too much, he'd have to use the washroom that much sooner.

He doubted they'd be kind enough to let him. They'd probably tell him to hold it in until they were done and hit him with the pain stick if he failed.

"A good start, trainees," the Chief said without even a hint of a smile. "Now we run. On your FEET!"

This isn't any fun at ALL! He did his best to get moving along with the other kids so as not to give Harper the opening he needed to use his pain stick.

Still, as they jogged down the gravel path through the army base and beyond, there was one benefit to the hated running and that was getting a good idea of the layout of the base. If he was going to help Joy get out, he needed to know where everything was and this was as good an opportunity to find out as any other time. His memory wasn't quite as good as Joy's but he was sure that she was looking about just as much as he was and between them they'd be able to draw a decent enough map. Once they had that they could begin coming up with an escape plan.

In his mind they'd have to spend a month here, maybe two, and then they'd be ready to make a break for it.

The reason why he figured they'd have to stay here so long was because he was certain that they'd have to be in the best condition of their lives to make it out. He was good but he could get better and Joy was passable but needed time to catch up with him. Plus he was pretty sure the Chief and the bad teachers would be watching them the first couple of weeks to see if anyone tried to get out. Better to wait until they got bored before trying to sneak out.

Eventually they came to a building with a dome on top and several columns near the steps leading to the entrance. Over the top arch of the entrance were the words 'Naval Officers Academy' and that pretty much clinched it that the people who'd taken all these kids and lied about adopting Joy were military people. Weren't they supposed to be the good guys? In all the cartoon vids he'd seen soldiers were supposed to help and protect people from the bad ones that broke the law and wanted to hurt people. Why were they doing this? Were they the bad guys dressed up as good guys trying to make them into bad people? He didn't know but, when the ghost woman from earlier appeared above a circle near the door, he decided to save such thoughts until later.

"Excellent work, Chief Petty Officer Mendez," the ghost lady said with a pretty voice before turning to face the group of kids. "Welcome. My name is Déjà and I will be your teacher. Please come in. Class is about to start."

A lot of the kids groaned out loud at this and he couldn't blame them since he hadn't liked the lessons he'd had to take back at the orphanage much either. He really preferred playing outside or cooking something new in the kitchen, but the sisters back home had made it clear that he could only do those things after his lessons. Predictably Joy actually looked interested in learning something new but that was also no surprise to him. Even when they weren't sitting in lessons back at the orphanage he could usually find her reading a book she'd borrowed from the public library. He didn't know why she bothered since just about everyone was accessible via COM pad but she'd told him once that she preferred the feel of a real book to a COM pad.

"Of course if you prefer to skip your lessons, you may continue the morning calisthenics," Déjà said as she turned as though to walk into the building.

He was pretty sure she couldn't move out of the circle she was in but figured there had to be other circles inside the building that she could go to. In any case, every kid in the group, including him, jumped at the chance to get a break from the Chief's exercises, even if it did mean listening to boring stuff.

It was definitely nice and cool inside so that was good, but when he looked at the food that'd been laid out for them he came to one undeniable conclusion.

They think we're mice! he thought as he looked at the combination of crackers and milk.

After the workout he'd just been put through he wanted a sandwich instead of crackers, along with a cupcake. The milk was fine, even if it wasn't chocolate flavored, but the crackers were way too stale and nowhere near numerous enough to fill his tummy. Still, he didn't think complaining would do any good so he took the portion that'd been set aside for him and took a seat, hoping that this turned out to just be the appetizer.

It turned out it was just a snack for them to eat while Déjà showed them a holographic countryside and told them the story of how three hundred warriors managed to inflict devastating losses on an army of thousands. It was a story he knew all too well since he'd asked Reverend Mommy about the middle name they'd given him and she'd told him about King Leonidas of Sparta.

Okay, so maybe the lessons wouldn't be TOO boring.

The Office of Doctor Katherine Halsey

Three Months Later

Doctor Halsey's POV

"Why are you frowning, Petty Officer?" she asked even as the man sat down in front of her desk with a folder in hand.

"I haven't been able to catch him at anything but I'm sure zero-six-nine is up to something," Mendez replied with his frown, neither looking angry or puzzled.

If she had to compare it to anything it was like he was an A.I. encountering an error he couldn't quite resolve.

"Oh? What's given you cause to think that?" she asked, mildly intrigued at the news about her last minute addition to the list of subjects.

"From the beginning he's been keeping his eyes open and taking everything in," he replied, looking like he was reviewing the facts even as he spoke of them. "Not like a kid trying to figure out where they were but rather like a soldier trying to build a mental map. He's also been talkin' to zero-seven-zero. She's been keeping her eyes peeled, too, but not being quite as careful as him."

"Both subjects have a history with one another, so their continued interaction is no surprise," she said, subtly trying to emphasize that they were numbers, not people. "As for acting like a soldier, I'm told it's a popular game for someone their age."

"This wasn't a kid playing a game, Halsey," Mendez said, ignoring her subtle point. "I've seen newbies fresh into boot camp playing at being soldiers. They weren't half as sharp as zero-six-nine was being, taking in the run routes I've been taking'em down."

Interesting, she thought as she remembered how the subject had managed to tail her and Lieutenant Keyes to the shuttle. More evidence of pursuit and covert ops training.

Under the cover of looking for potential new points of view, she'd requested any information on efforts by other groups to turn children into soldiers in the last ten years. Neither the source nor the intel could be verified or precisely described since doing so would make it easier for any watchers to narrow down what she was really after. However, even though there were a few such operations rumored to have existed, none of them existed close enough to Arcadia to be where zero-six-nine received training. Indeed, based on what she'd learned, the only ones who were close enough to be acceptable possibilities had been shut down by USNC forces well before subject zero-six-nine would've been capable of being trained. Even after she'd traced the history of the orphanage to see if something was going on behind the scenes, she couldn't find a logical explanation for the subject's skills.

If there was one thing that bothered her it was not having the answers to her questions.

"Have you found any evidence of an escape attempt in the planning stages?" she asked, determining that that was the likely purpose of the memorizing of the surroundings.

"Not yet. They'll have to commit it to COM pad or paper sooner or later, though, to bring everything they've memorized together," he replied with a shake of his head. "I'll be waiting to catch them when they do."

"Good. Be vigilant, Petty Officer," she said strongly before deciding to move things along. "Now update me on the progress of the subjects' training. It's been three months so I would think you'd have a firm grasp of their individual strengths and weaknesses."

"Yeah, I've got their numbers, alright," he said as he opened the folder in his hand. "They've already started gravitating into groups of two to six and for the most part they mesh well. Had to break'em up into threes, though, for this part of the training, but that helped up efficiency by making sure all three had something to compliment the others. Here're the team lists I think'd work best for the group exercises."

Taking the piece of paper he'd passed her, she looked down the list of suggested groups and nodded in agreement since the groupings did allow the aptitudes of each subject to fill the gaps in the other two's abilities. If they continued to progress in their respective fields until completion of phase one, they would make a most effective unit on missions. However it was as she saw the grouping involving Alex-zero-six-nine that she saw something that she knew had to be changed in order to evade a potential hindrance to the Program.

"Replace one-four-one with zero-two-three," she ordered without any emotion.

"May I ask why?" he asked, giving nothing away in terms of tone of voice or facial expression.

"Suffice it to say that having zero-seven-zero interact with one-four-one could produce a… complication… I'd rather avoid if at all possible," she replied, not wanting to give the man the entire truth. "It would hinder their training unnecessarily."

"Very well. I'll make the change tomorrow," he said, not bothering to probe any deeper for her reasons.

From there the meeting went like all the others they'd had bi-weekly since phase one had officially begun. As before she only needed to make minor recommendations to the man about training the subjects since she'd seen firsthand that he did not go easy on them. Once he'd learned their physical limitations during the first week, he knew just how hard he could push them before they'd break and become useless to the Program. The man had trained raw recruits many times before and the results had never failed to satisfy those in charge, so he made the ideal chief instructor for the Program's subjects. Best of all the man didn't pry too deeply when she gave him an order that was somewhat… unusual. She just had to give him a reply that covered the essentials and that was enough to get him to comply. Each of them knew their domain as far as the Program went and neither of them trespassed into the other's territory due to frivolous curiosity. It was a good and solid working relationship that was helping the Program progress at an acceptable rate of speed.

Once Mendez finished his summary of the training he'd put the subjects through she informed him of the results of the bi-weekly physicals each of them went through as well as the more specialized tests. Due to the nature of phase two it was necessary to stay on top of each subject's physiological status and make adjustments when necessary to either diet or training. All of the subjects needed to be optimum condition if she was going to keep the survival rate as high as it possibly could get. She'd continue to consult with various experts in the relevant fields, provided she received O.N.I. authorization, in an effort to increase the odds of subject survival. Sadly, given the timeline she was forced to work with, she didn't hold out much hope of someone making a revolutionary breakthrough in the necessary fields in less than eight years.

Nevertheless, the seriousness of her task required that she utilize every resource at her disposal in order to achieve optimum results. Anything less would only give ammunition to her enemies within the Office of Naval Intelligence and she would not permit that.

Before they could finish the meeting, however, Déjà appeared above the holo-pad built into her desk.

"I am sorry to interrupt your meeting, Doctor Halsey, but a situation has arisen requiring your attention," Déjà said in her usual polite manner.

"What is it, Déjà?" she asked, knowing that the artificial intelligence wouldn't barge in without a good reason.

"I am afraid that Jai-zero-zero-six and Adriana-one-one-one have made another escape attempt and managed to make it over the perimeter fence," Déjà replied without concern. "As per your standing orders a team of trainers have armed themselves with tranquilizer rifles and have left in pursuit."

"Those two have earned another three days of solitary for this," Mendez grumbled in mild frustration at yet another example of the two subjects managing to slip through his security measures.

For the last two and a half months the two subjects had made repeated attempts to escape the complex and each time they managed to get just that little bit further. Indeed, it wasn't inconceivable that they might eventually succeed in making it to a populated area before the pursuit team could find them and that would lead to bothersome complications. Not only would it represent a security risk for the Program but it would also give her rivals something to use when they called her competency into question. If she couldn't keep six year old children confined to territory set aside for the Program, then perhaps someone else should be placed in charge. That's what they'd say if the matter was brought before the O.N.I. brass.

She could not allow that to happen.

"Emphasize to the pursuit team that all haste must be given to their recapture but that the subjects are to be brought back with minimal damage," she ordered with a tone as solid as stone. "Also begin reviewing security data to find out how they managed to escape this time. I want those holes in complex security plugged up ASAP."

"Understood, Doctor Halsey," Déjà said before disappearing from the holo-pad.

Still, it would be wasteful of her to let the skill subjects zero-zero-six and one-one-one displayed with their escapes go to waste. If they had an aptitude for breaking out of a secure facility then it stood to reason they might also possess skill in breaking into one. Once completed, her SPARTANs would be called upon to serve in a variety of capacities, not just as front line soldiers, so nurturing infiltration and exfiltration skills could prove to be quite the asset. Looking at the third member of the team zero-zero-six was a part of, she found that one-two-zero had shown to be adept with technology, making him a good fit for an espionage unit.

I'll have Déjà schedule more classes in the necessary fields for these three, she thought even as she concluded her meeting with Mendez.

Thus things began to take shape and she looked forward to seeing the final result.

A Transport Flying Over a Forest

Joy's POV

Two years.

It was hard to believe that it'd been two years since she and Alex had left Arcadia and come to Reach to be turned into soldiers for the UNSC. In the early months she'd been dead set on escaping and finding a way to get back to Arcadia, back to Saint Joseph's Orphanage, and Alex had been right there with her. They'd even managed to find other kids willing to work with them to figure out a way to escape, but some had thought it too risky to work together in such a large group. Jai and Adriana only worked with each other and their attempts happened as often as they could make it happen but neither of them had managed to make it to the nearest city on Reach. She'd suggested following them in the hopes that superior numbers would be enough to get them past their pursuers but Alex had said it'd be best to let the duo go one their own. He was certain that the trainers sent out after them wouldn't kill them or even seriously hurt them. By letting them take the lead the rest of them would gain valuable intel on the weaponry, tactics and abilities of the pursuers, allowing them to adjust their plans, making them that much more likely to succeed.

After six months, though, all they'd learned was that trying to escape back to civilization on foot wasn't an option since it had become clear that civilization was a good distance away from them. That only left stealing a Warthog or a Pelican but none of them knew how to drive one or fly the other, so they'd been forced to wait until they reached that part of their training.

Each day was comprised of two parts: one half would train their bodies while the other half trained their minds. The Chief would push them to their limits physically and then force them to go beyond them if they wanted to succeed at their assigned mission. Failure meant punishment that varied between not getting supper along with the other kids or being asked to do double what the others had been tasked with doing, regardless of how long it took. It was clear that the man was determined to make them as good as possible but, while some wanted to hate him, only the more irrational ones managed to do so. The rest quickly came to realize that, while the Chief was strict and held them to high standards, he was never unnecessarily cruel like some of the other instructors. He didn't shower them with praise when they met a challenge he gave them but they were able to get a measure of approval out of him.

The other half of the day they spent with Déjà, who was in charge of training their minds on a variety of subjects like math, physics, writing and military tactics. The A.I. was the nicer of the two instructors but didn't give them any leeway when it came to learning what she had to teach them and insisted that they get it absolutely right. She didn't mind this since she'd always liked reading and didn't have any trouble remembering anything, so she always got the best marks on the tests. Alex had it a little harder but she knew he was smarter than he let on.

Even if it got him in trouble, her best friend Alex always did what he could to cheer up the kids who started crying because they missed their families, even if it made him look like an idiot. The Chief got mad at this, though, and usually yelled at her friend for behaving like a fool, but Alex didn't mind. To him seeing the crying turn to laughing made the pain sticks and solitary confinement worth it. He'd even tried to sneak into the kitchen of the complex at night for food but he always got caught before he could steal anything. Alex told the grown ups that he was just hungry and wanted more food but she knew the truth because of what he'd asked her to do their first week on Reach.

He'd asked her to get the full names, home planets and birthdays of every kid in the SPARTAN II program.

Alex had known from the beginning that the adults would try to make them forget their past and he hadn't been about to let them do that to all of them. He'd known that a piece of paper could be found and destroyed but her photographic memory would ensure that the truth would never be forgotten. Then afterwards, whenever someone's birthday came around, Alex would try to sneak into the kitchen to get a frosted cupcake or some other cake-like desert to give to the birthday boy or girl. He hadn't succeeded yet but the other kids still appreciated him trying and so did she. Every day of training, of lessons, were hard on them, pushing both body as well as mind to the limit in order to meet the demands of the instructors. Any balm, any bit of kindness, they received was treasured and gave them the strength they needed to keep going for a while longer.

"At ease, recruits, and sit down," the Chief commanded as he stepped out of the cockpit. "Today's mission will be a simple for a change. Pass these out, recruit."

The man then gave a handful of small pieces of paper to Kelly.

"Sir!" Kelly replied, saluting perfectly just as they'd been instructed to do early on.

One by one all seventy-six of her friends received a piece of paper and, when Kelly was done, the Chief explained what they'd be for.

"These are portions of maps of the local region. You will be set down by yourselves," the Chief said, letting his gaze pass over each of them. "You will then navigate to a marked extraction point and we will pick you up there."

Turning over her piece of paper, she could tell that it was part of a much larger map but there wasn't near enough there to let her know where the extraction point was located.

"One more thing," the Chief said in one of those 'this is not open for discussion' tones. "The last trainee to make it to the extraction point will be left behind and it's a VERY long walk back."

No shit! she thought, remembering the phrase she'd heard one of the trainers use once sarcastically. It took us twenty minutes by Pelican to get out here by air. On foot… the last kid would be lucky to reach the complex by sundown.

"Trainee one-one-seven, you're up first," the Chief said, pointing to the rear hatch of the aircraft.

It was a couple of minutes later that hope arrived when Kelly poked her covertly in the arm to get her attention before gesturing to look at the river they could all see out the window. At first she didn't get what the girl was trying to pass on but then her lessons under Déjà kicked in and she understood: a rally point. No matter where they all got dropped off, if they all rallied to the river or the spot where the river fed into the lake, they could regroup. Once that happened they'd just have to piece together the bigger map using their individual pieces!

She couldn't help but smile brightly on the inside even as she kept it from showing up on the outside.

Over the next half hour all seventy-six of them got dropped off and Alex got let go before her, making her the last one out but she wasn't worried. They had a good plan and, since it was probably John's idea, it made him a good leader. So long as they followed his lead, they'd be fine.

"Get going zero-seven-zero," the Chief said as the Pelican came to a stop just above the treetops of her drop off point.

She wasn't scared because they'd been taught how to jump down from heights like this without getting hurt, so without hesitation she jumped, making sure to go into a roll upon hitting the ground. As soon as she was back on her feet she began to make her way for the river. She'd done her best to keep track of it as each of her friends was dropped off so she'd at least know which side of it she was on. Getting her bearings and listening for the faint sound of running water she broke into a run, heading for the river so that she could hook up with the others.

There were no prepared paths for her to follow and, since she'd never been out there she didn't know the topography either. so there'd been a couple of times there'd been a drop too high for her to get down without a rope. She'd also remembered the Chief's warning to John about the wolves but she wasn't sure if he was being serious or not about that. Then she'd remembered who she was dealing with and had kept an eye out for suspicious movement that might turn out to be a wolf slinking through the bushes towards her.

An hour later and she finally managed to make it to the mouth of the river and with a bit of satisfaction she saw that she was the sixth person there, with Kelly being the only girl. Not surprising seeing as how everyone had learned early on in their training that the dark haired girl was the fastest of them all. It took another half an hour before everyone else showed up but when they did John had three of them scout the area just in case the Chief had set up some surprises for them. It was something that they'd all come to expect from the man: his missions were never as cut and dry as he made them sound during the briefing. There were always hidden elements meant to keep them on their toes or to hammer home the fact that they had to expect the unexpected if they wanted to win.

Once the scouts were gone the rest of them brought forth their pieces of paper and Kelly began to piece them together like one big jigsaw puzzle. There were a lot of pieces and you couldn't really know how they were supposed to fit together if you'd never seen the complete picture before. Still, they eventually had what looked to be the complete map.

"Some of these don't belong and some are copies," Kelly said after she'd put the last piece into place, "but I think I have it right. This is the lake… and this is the river here… so that's got to be the extraction point."

Looking at the spot on the map the girl had pointed out, she had to agree that it looked different from the rest of the map and certainly looked like it could be the spot they were supposed to go to.

"If the map's right then it's a full day's hike from here," she said, using her knowledge of geography and map reading to make sense of what they were being shown. "We'd better get started."

A whistle from John called Sam, Fhajad, James and Linda back from their scouting positions, and then the order was given to set out for the extraction point.

Breaking into the teams that the Chief had put them into, they spread out as far as they could without losing sight of one another and then began to move. They'd learned early on that staying in one large group might sound smart but all it really did was present a big fat target for hostiles. Seeing as how they didn't know what sort of tricks the Chief had in store for them, staying separated would minimize the damage any surprises might inflict.

They weren't gonna be taken down without a fight.

Bushes a Short Distance From the Extraction Area

Xander's POV

What's taking them so long? he thought as he waited for Sam, Kelly and John to get back.

They were less than two hundred yards from the extraction point but John had ordered them to remain there while he and two others scouted ahead. It wasn't that he thought it was a bad idea or anything, given how tricky the Chief could be with his missions, but the longer the three remained missing, the more likely that something bad had happened. Either they'd bumped into some sort of obstacle that was taking them a long time to examine or they'd been caught by some of the Chief's men. If it was the former then they should come back and get Michael and Joy since they were by far the two smartest kids in the Program and could figure out what to do no problem. If it was the latter, the hostiles could be bearing down on their position, meaning they needed to get away quickly if they wanted to avoid capture too.

He was about to take charge and tell everyone to scatter when John and the others finally reappeared, looking fine and not under any duress, like someone being forced to sell out his friends would be.

"We've got trouble. There's a drop ship at the extraction point but the men around it aren't the Chief's and they aren't wearing UNSC uniforms," John explained quietly to the assembled group. "We have to assume that they're not just going to give us a ride back to base."

"So what do we do?" Joy asked, sounding like she was formulating a few ideas of her own.

John had an expression on his face he knew all too well: it was the face of someone wondering why they had to be the one to come up with an answer. The fact of the matter was that, whether they knew it or not, just about everyone saw John as the leader of their group and had believed in this fact since before the current mission. Out of all of them John had worked the hardest to win and had done what he could to make sure everyone else did as well. Sure, he'd thought about making himself the leader once but in the end it'd just seemed like too much work and he was content enough to be a loyal friend instead.

"Okay… we don't know who these men are or what they'll do when they see us," John said as a plan formed in his mind. "So we find out."

It was a reasonable course of action to probe a potential threat before committing more resources to the mission.

"Here's how we'll do it," John said, looking about the group. "First, I'll need a rabbit."

"That's me," Kelly said, standing up from her crouching position. "I'm the fastest."

"Good," John said with a nod of agreement. "You go to the edge of the meadow where they are and let them see you. I'll go along and hide nearby and watch. In case anything happens to you, I'll report back to the others."

Kelly didn't seem to mind this part of the plan but he didn't like the idea of leaving the girl to fend for herself if the unknown men turned out to be hostiles. She was fast but a rabbit could be stopped cold if you hurt their legs bad enough. If that's the way it went down, though, he'd be the first to suggest mounting a rescue operation to get her back. He didn't think he'd have to since John had shown himself unwilling to leave a comrade behind in the past but he'd keep it in mind just in case.

"Once they see you, lure a few back here. Run right to this spot," John said, pointing to the ground at the center of their little gathering. "Sam, you'll be out in the open pretending you've broken your leg."

"Gotcha," Sam said before going over to Fhajad to get the boy to scrape his boot against his knee to make a convincing wound.

"The rest of you will wait in the woods in a big circle around Sam's position," John said, looking at those that were without a task. "If they try to do anything but help Sam… remember Déjà's story about the moose and the wolves?"

He had to smile a bit at this and Missy liked the idea as well, judging from the feelings he was getting from her. Kelly was the bait, Sam was the wounded prey and when the unknowns moved in for the kill there'd be one big ambush waiting for them. With the plan made they each began to prepare, with Kelly taking off her parka to stretch while Sam got on the ground practicing his wounded kid routine.

"Don't overdo it," John said before kicking some dirt on Sam, "or they'll know it's a setup."

Picking up a decent sized rock he made a few practice swings with it to make sure it had just the right amount of heft to be able to do some damage to the unknown men. He glanced in Kelly's direction, seeing John say something to her, only for the girl to slug him hard in the arm. The guy was probably offering to take her place only for the girl's pride to flare up. If there was one thing Kelly was proud about it was the fact that she was the fastest kid in the Program. None of the rest of them could quite match her, even if a few of them could come close for short periods of time.

As soon as Kelly left they all spread out, hiding behind trees and bushes and anything else that'd keep them from being seen by whoever the girl managed to lure back. He managed to find the perfect spot behind a fallen tree trunk that'd allow him a clear line of sight to Sam while also providing him with some protection against gunfire. He HOPED that the unknowns didn't have guns but it was better to be safe than sorry.

A little over five minutes later Kelly returned running right past Sam into the bushes, followed a few seconds behind by one other guy. Not the best results since he would've preferred that they lure at least half of the unknowns into this kill zone but they'd work with what they had. Seeing the man forget about Kelly and kneel down next to Sam, he waited to see what would happen next, frowning when a short while later the unknown brought up his shock stick.

Definitely an enemy! he thought having dark memories about being on the receiving end of the shock stick.

As one the group of seventy-six kids threw their rocks at the man, taking care not to hit Sam before he rolled clear of the hostile. In seconds it was over, the man unconscious on the ground with blood trickling from a head wound. Picking up another rock that was close by he advanced cautiously, just in case the guy was faking it, but after a minute of nothing everyone concluded that what they were seeing was the truth.

"What do we do with him?" Sam asked, pointing out a very important problem.

What were they going to do with the hostile? It wasn't like they had a jail to put him in.

"It's just an exercise, right?" Fhajad said, sounding like he was uncertain about what was really going on. "He has to be with Mendez."

"You saw what he was going to do," John whispered, not sounding like he believed in that possibility. "Mendez or our trainers would never do that to us. Ever. He's got no uniform or insignias. He's not one of us. Get his baton."

Sam complied before kicking the unconscious man in the ribs.

"Kelly, go back and get more of them to come here," John ordered the dark haired girl. "You just have to get them to the edge of the clearing this time. Duck out once they're there and let us do the rest."

With that they all went back to their hiding places and he figured it wouldn't be hard to get the remaining hostiles out into the clearing with their comrade unconscious in the middle of it. Even if they didn't feel even a little bit of loyalty to each other, they'd want to confirm their comrade's status and that'd cause most of them to go to his side to check for a pulse. When that happened they'd suffer the same fate, gaining him and his friends more effective weapons while also reducing the number of hostiles guarding the extraction ship. Even if the ones on guard duty had guns they'd be outnumbered, and if the weapons gained were given to the fastest amongst them, the possibility of one of them getting shot would be minimal.

To him the mission was already over.

All that was left was to seal the deal and he had no doubt in his mind that they'd do that within the next five minutes.

With this kind of success the Chief was going to have to do better on the next mission he dreamt up.

Orbiting UNSC Satellite Above Reach

Doctor Catherine Halsey's POV

It was amazing how quickly six years could go by.

She felt like it'd only been yesterday that she'd given the order to have the seventy-four other test subjects rounded up and brought to Reach to join zero-six-nine and zero-seven-zero. Six years. Seventy-two months. Almost twenty-two hundred days. Phase One had come to a close and they were on the verge of beginning Phase Two. Looking out through the observation room window, she looked at the seventy-six isolation units that occupied the room aboard the O.N.I. medical facility orbiting Reach. Each of them was a sealed environment and had assigned to each of them the best surgeons and biotechnicians the Office of Naval Intelligence could get their hands on. Each of them had been thoroughly scrubbed with conventional cleaning implements and then irradiated in order to ensure that no germs or harmful bacteria existed inside. They were in the final stages of preparation for the augmentations that would be performed in there soon but, looking at them now, she couldn't help but wonder if she'd overlooked anything.

This was where the most things could go wrong, after all.

The fact that she was waiting for the final word from Admiral Jeromi on the consult she'd requested of him certainly didn't help her mood.

"Doctor Halsey? I am receiving an encrypted transmission addressed to you," Déjà said, for once not holographically appearing before her. "It is from Admiral Jeromi of the UNSC Research Station Hopeful."

"I want that transmission decoded immediately," she ordered, letting her impatience seep through the cracks.

"The encryption scheme is extremely complex," Déjà replied, sounding a little irritated at being spoken to so snappily. "I don't even know why they bothered. Who else but Beta-Five Division even has the resources to use this data?"

"Spare me the banter, Déjà," she said in a chilly tone. "I'm not in the mood. Just concentrate on the decryption and when it's complete display the files on my glasses."

"Yes, Doctor," Déjà said, regaining a more professional tone of voice.

It took about five minutes for the decryption to be completed and another two before the retinal scan and brain pattern analysis confirmed her identity, allowing her to view the files.

Catherine, I am afraid further analysis has yielded no viable alternatives to mitigate the risks in your proposed 'hypothetical' experimentation. I have, however, attached the synopsis of my team's findings as well as all relevant case studies. Perhaps you will find them useful, the cover letter file displayed to her eyes as she used eye blinks to scroll down. I hope it is a hypothetical study… the use of Binobo chimpanzees in your proposal is troublesome. These animals are expensive and rare now since they are no longer bred in captivity. I would hate to see such valuable specimens wasted in some Section Three project. Best, Y.J.

With the personal part over with, something she was thankful for since she didn't like the man's veiled rebuke of her work, she moved on to the chemical/biological risks the man had determined could happen if she went through with the augmentations.

First was the carbide ceramic ossification of the skeletal structure of the subjects in order to make the bones virtually unbreakable by any known method. The synopsis recommended that coverage not exceed three percent of the total bone mass due to the fact that doing so would result in significant white blood cell necrosis. The specific risk for subjects like the ones she would be using would be irreparable bone pulverization due to the growth spurts common for most people from this age going onward.

Next was the muscular enhancement injections that involved the injecting of a protein complex intramuscularly in order to increase tissue density and decrease lactase acid recovery time. The risk of this augmentation was that five percent of the subjects who underwent the procedure to date experienced a fatal cardiac volume increase.

The catalytic thyroid implant came next, wherein a platinum pellet containing a human growth hormone catalyst would be implanted in the thyroid of the subject, boosting the growth of skeletal and muscular tissues. Jeromi's efforts concluded that there was a slim chance of the subject contracting elephantiasis as well as having their sex drive suppressed.

Not that there'd be much in the way of opportunities for that to be of use given that they'd turn any normal human partner into jelly should they survive their augmentations, she thought, not considering the latter risk to be a big loss.

Occipital capillary reversal followed and it involved the submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the subject's retina. If successful there'd be a marked visual perception increase but there was also the risk of retinal rejection and detachment which would result in permanent blindness in the subject.

Last came the superconducting fibrification of the neural dendrites done via alteration of the bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Doing this would result in a three hundred percent increase in the subject's reflexes with the side benefits being a marked increase in intelligence, memory and creativity. The risk, however, was the significant chance of Parkinson's disease and Fletcher's syndrome.

Her mind was aflutter with the potential consequences to the augmentations and on automatic pilot more than anything else she closed the file and erased all traces of it from the system. She then sent Déjà to track the file pathways all the way back to the research station Hopeful so Jeromi's copies of the materials would also be eradicated. Only once this was done did she remove her glasses and pinch the bridge of her nose as the enormity of what she was about to do came down on her.

"I'm sorry," Déjà said with some sympathy. "I, too, had hoped there would be some new process to lower the risks."

"I have doubts, Déjà," she said with a sigh as she put her glasses in her pocket. "I thought the reasons so compelling when we first started the SPARTAN II Program. Now? I… I just don't know."

"I have been over the O.N.I. projections of Outer Colony stability three times, Doctor," Déjà said in her normal inhuman way. "Their conclusion is correct: massive rebellion within twenty years unless drastic military action is taken. And you know the 'drastic military action' the brass would like. The SPARTAN IIs are our only option to avoid overwhelming civilian losses. They will be the perfect pinpoint strike force. They can prevent a civil war."

Yes. That was the scenario that had caused her to propose the Program in the first place and likely what had convinced those in charge to support her Program. If civil war broke out between the inner and outer colonies, the death toll would be staggering not just for the soldiers on either side but also for the civilians caught in between. The Insurrectionists over the last six years had made it clear that they didn't care about the civilians that they'd killed in an effort just to assassinate just one valuable target. Then again O.N.I. and the UNSC had proven they could be equally ruthless when they had to be and used 'acceptable losses' to explain away the civilian body count. If things continued down the path they were currently on it'd lead to escalation that would inevitably lead to weapons of mass destruction becoming the standard rather than the option of last resort. Only through her creations could this horrible future possibly be avoided and all it'd cost her was the deaths of potentially half of her subjects.

"Only if they survive to fulfill that mission, Déjà," she said, countering the A.I's statement. "We should delay the procedures. More research needs to be done. We could use that time to work on MJOLNIR. We need time to-"

"There is another reason to proceed expeditiously," Déjà interrupted with some wariness in her tone. "Although I am loath to bring this to your attention, I must. If the Office of Naval Intelligence detects a delay in their prize project, you will likely be replaced by someone who harbors… fewer doubts. And regrettably for the children, most likely someone less qualified."

She was right.

She was right and she hated it!

Without another word she left the observation room to find Mendez waiting for her in the hallway.

"Walk with me, Chief," she said without breaking stride.

They took the nearby stairs to the pre-op wing of the hospital and upon arriving went to room one one seven, where John lay in his bed with an IV drip attached to his arm. His head had been shaved like all the others and incision vectors had been lasered into his entire body. Despite these actions which many would consider indignities, she couldn't help but marvel at what a physical specimen he'd grown into. Fourteen years old and he had the body of an eighteen year old Olympic athlete and a mind the equal of any Naval Academy honors graduate.

"How are you feeling?" she asked while forcing the best smile she could muster given the circumstances.

"I'm fine, ma'am. No thanks to Alex's prank earlier," John replied a little groggily.

She couldn't help but genuinely chuckle at this statement. In the entire six years since she'd brought Alex-zero-six-nine to Reach, the boy had been equal parts excellent soldier and chaos theory personified. He'd done so well with his lessons under Mendez that there'd been talk of making him John's second or third in command when it came to the SPARTAN IIs as a whole. At the same time, however, he'd regularly broken rules and regulations in order to, in his own words, 'keep his new family human'. From the beginning she'd done what she could to distance the subjects from their former lives, if not cut them off completely by trying to wipe their surnames out of existence as far as they were concerned. In spite of this Alex and Joyce did everything they could to counter their work, either by celebrating each subject's birthday to holding little gatherings filled with stories of the past. Mendez, the trainers, Déjà and even she had done their best to discourage this but it never really had any affect. All it did was motivate Alex and Joyce to be all the more covert in their efforts, with John treating it like any other training exercise.

At the moment she found herself thankful that strange boy had managed to bring some light to what was no doubt going to be a very dark night.

"The nurse said the sedation would take effect soon," John said, continuing with his reply. "I'm fighting it to see how long I can stay awake but it's not easy."

Seeing the boy's gaze rise to go over her shoulder, she new he was looking at Mendez.

"I know this is one of your exercises, sir," John said, sounding much more like someone his age, "but I don't know what the twist is. Can you tell me, Doctor Halsey? Just this time? How do I win?"

She leaned closer to John as she recognized the signs of the sedation winning the battle and whispered into his ear, "I'll tell you how to win, John. You have to survive."

With that John was unconscious and, as she pulled back, she knew that the other subjects would also likely be unconscious by now. She'd give it another hour to be sure then she'd order that each of them be placed in their corresponding isolation units before ordering the augmentation procedures be started. That would be time enough for her to steel herself for what would come next, what she would force herself to watch, as she prayed to whatever god was listening to aid the children in whatever way possible.

She'd probably have more luck if she prayed to the other side but she'd dealt with enough devils in O.N.I. to know what that'd cost her.

The UNSC Atlas

Awhile After the Enhancement Procedures

Joy's POV

"Duty. Honor. Self-sacrifice," the Chief said as they stood in front of the ejection tubes containing the cremated remains of their dead friends. "Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier. We shall remember our fallen. And so we commit the bodies of our fallen brothers and sisters to space."

In perfect unison the remaining thirty-four members of her family stood at attention and executed perfect salutes even as the containers in the tubes were shot into space, never to be seen again. She struggled to retain her composure, to stay the perfect soldier she'd been trained to become, but she just couldn't let go of the fact that thirty of her friends, her family, were dead. When she tried to think of the augmentation procedures all that came up was a blackness filled with unimaginable pain while screams echoed horribly in her mind. The doctors had told her that her mind was likely suppressing the traumatic experience and that in time she might be able to remember more.

She didn't know if she WANTED to remember more.

As everyone assumed a more at ease posture she looked at each of them, bandages and stiches still marring their appearances somewhat. She'd been told that it'd likely be three weeks before they'd be capable engaging in any sort of strenuous activity but that was nothing compared to what twelve of their number would have to endure. While thirty of their surrogate family had died as a result of the augmentation procedures, twelve of them had suffered side effects that would make it impossible for them to continue training with the rest of them. It hurt her to look at them but she knew it'd hurt them even more if she avoided looking at them altogether. Fhajad was confined to a wheelchair now and was shaking uncontrollably despite what she knew were his best efforts to stop. Musa was a bit better off in that he still in complete control of half of his body but she knew from his face that the pain he was feeling was almost unbearable even with the pain medication. Kirk and Rene were in neutral-buoyancy gel tanks, forced to breathe through respirators because their bones had been so twisted that it was hard to see them as human. The others were so sick that they couldn't even be moved from the medical facility to attend the funeral and, quite frankly, that was as much as she was comfortable thinking of at the moment.

As orderlies began to move the disabled members of her family out of the room, John moved to block them from reaching the elevator.

"Stand fast, crewman," John demanded with a stern look. "Where are you taking my men?"

"I, sir… I have my orders, sir," the orderly replied with wide eyes as he came to a halt.

"Squad Leader," Mendez said off to the side, attracting John's attention. "A moment."

With a single order for the orderly not to move from his current position John walked to Mendez to hear what the man had to say. They were too far away for her to hear but fortunately for her she'd learned how to lip read with Déjà's help, so with a few steps she was able to gain clear line of sight on both John and the Chief's mouths.

"Let them go," Mendez said to the Squad Leader of the SPARTAN IIs. "They can't fight anymore. They don't belong here."

"What will happen to them?" John asked after glancing out into space at the rapidly shrinking containers filled with human ash.

"The Navy takes care of its own," Mendez replied, lifting his chin a little higher. "They may no longer be the fastest or the strongest soldiers but they still have sharp minds. They can still plan missions, analyze data, troubleshoot ops…"

This seemed to put John at ease and, to be honest, she felt better as well. When she'd first seen the twelve who'd survived but had been irreparably harmed by the augmentations, her mind had come up with horrific futures for them. Futures were they were 'humanely' euthanized before being shot off into space. Futures where they'd been forced to live out their lives trapped in hospitals with nothing to look forward to but years of isolation from the rest of the world.

At least this way they could still be useful and that was the one thing everyone wanted to one degree or another.

"That's all any of us ask for, sir: a chance to serve," John said before turning to face Fhajad and the others before snapping to attention and saluting.

Fhajad barely managed to return the salute but manage it he did before the orderlies resumed their course for the elevator to take the injured away.

"Good news I hope?" came a voice from behind her that had her spinning around startled to see who it was.

"ALEX!" she exclaimed before punching him in the shoulder like she always did. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," Alex said with the lopsided grin she'd come to know quite well. "So… good news?"

"Chief said Fhajad and the others wouldn't be abandoned. They'll be assigned to analyze data, troubleshoot ops and things like that instead of fighting," she replied before glancing at the elevator just in time to see it close.

"Good. After taking us from our families and putting us through all this, making sure they're taken care of is the least they can do," he said, sounding like he had planned on doing something drastic if she hadn't had good news.

Considering what he'd done in the past to make sure they never forgot where they came from or their real names, she didn't want to think about what he'd had in mind. It wasn't that Alex didn't respect the chain of command or see Halsey and Mendez as their surrogate parents, but rather that those he considered friends or family meant more to him than anything else.

Including his life, if necessary.

"Not having second thoughts, are you?" she asked, looking him right in the eye.

"About what?" he asked, looking like he wasn't sure what she was talking about.

"About not making a run for it because innocent people need our help," she clarified, watching as the light bulb switched on inside his head. "Remember last year? When you found out that the Insurrectionists hit the luxury liner National Holiday, killing everyone on board? Right up until then we'd been all set to make our escape with Daisy and Jai and Adriana. Then you came in, told us what had happened and said that if we left we'd be condemning all the people we could save to death. Remember that?"

"I remember and I still feel like that, it's just… it's just hard knowing thirty of our brothers and sisters are dead with twelve others seriously injured," he said, looking like he felt as badly as she did about the whole thing. "If we'd staged a mass break out and escaped, all of them would be alive and healthy right now."

"Or everything would've turned out just like it did," she said, pulling him into a hug. "There's no point thinking up 'what ifs' about the past. It's done and there's no turning back. All we can do is make sure their sacrifice means something and we do that by fighting the good fight for them."

His grin turned into a smile, "Since when did you get so good at pep talks?"

"Since you started brooding too much," she said with a mirroring smile.

"I'll have you know that I do NOT brood," he said with mock sharpness. "I quietly review past mission data and pick out all the mistakes that must never be repeated."

"You brood," she repeated and seconds later the both of them were chuckling with amusement.

When they were done she looked back at John and Mendez in time to catch that for the next two days they'd be restricted to bed rest before undergoing microgravity physical therapy until they recovered from the side effects of the augmentation. She knew what he was talking about because, ever since she regained enough strength to walk, she had difficulty doing so without falling over and her bones ached something fierce even with the pain medication she'd been given. The sooner her body got better, the happier she'd be.

Looking over to the third member of their team, Daisy, she could see the fellow blonde talking with Joseph and Ralph about something that was apparently quite serious, given the looks on their faces. Before she could start reading their lips, however, to find out what was wrong, Daisy noticed her and with a gesture led her trio out of the room. What was Daisy trying to keep a secret from her? She knew that of the three of them the girl from Sargasso had been the least convinced by Alex's speech about staying for the sake of future innocents. Unlike her and Alex, the third member of their team had had a loving family before she'd been conscripted into the SPARTAN II program. She didn't believe that the bonds she had with Reverend Mother, the sisters and the other kids at the orphanage were any less precious than the ones Daisy had with her parents. However, whenever the topic of staying with the Program popped up, she always got the impression that the girl believed her bonds were superior because they compelled her to leave.

Were those bonds calling to her now?

Please be careful, Daisy, she thought even though she knew it couldn't be heard by anyone but her. Don't do anything you won't be able to undo.

The UNSC Ship Atlas

Three Weeks Later

Alex's POV

Three weeks and things still don't feel right, he thought as he made his way to the gym on the UNSC carrier Atlas. Maybe some serious gym work will get things back to normal.

For the last three weeks he'd been put through a daily routine of stretching, isometric exercises, light sparring drills and a lot more eating than he'd done in the last six years. It wasn't even like the meals he used to have back at the orphanage! They'd been ordered to consume five high-protein meals a day instead of the usual three. He hadn't complained much at this since he'd always been fond of food and eating but he could've done without the injections they'd been forced to get in the medical bay. He'd never been a big fan of needles either before or after being recruited into the SPARTAN II Program and, after the augmentation procedures, he definitely didn't want any more unless it was absolutely necessary. With all the holes they'd poked in him with those shiny metal pointies, he was surprised he hadn't bled out on the deck yet. Joy said he was being stupid but he could tell that she wasn't liking the injections any more than he was.

He'd looked about for Daisy to see how she was doing, she was his teammate after all, but whenever he tried to get close enough to talk to her she found someplace else to be. Even when he tried to corner her during their light sparring sessions she faked being sick so she could be excused from the room. She was hiding something, something she was afraid he'd figure out if he had time to look at her or talk to her. He didn't like it and, after talking with Joy about it, they tried to talk to Ralph to see what he knew about it but the guy was tight lipped and, when pressed, escaped and evaded like Daisy had with him. With a sigh he turned the corner to the doors to the gym and decided he'd shelve the problem for now and focus on going through his workout regiment.

Entering the gym he saw that John had gotten there ahead of him but so had a quartet of men who looked like they were going to gang up on his squad leader. He was about to move to help when a hand came down on his shoulder stopping him. Turning he saw that it was Mendez who'd stopped him but he couldn't figure out why his chief instructor was preventing him from reinforcing John, given that he was outnumbered four to one. Sure, they'd been trained to combat up to five people at a time but that'd been in full combat gear with a basic weapons load out. With nothing but fists, feet and the hand-to-hand combat skills they'd been trained in, there was a strong chance that John might be hurt without backup. All Mendez did was gesture for him to stay silent and to watch what was about to occur.

Not knowing what the Chief was expecting but trusting the man nonetheless, he stood quietly as John's four opponents closed in on him. Two of the unknown men grabbed John by the biceps while a third tried to slip an arm around the neck of his target. It didn't work; before it could be cinched in his friend hunched his shoulders and tucked his chin to his chest to make the move impossible. Whipping his right elbow over the hand holding him, he pinned it to his side and then straight punched the man, breaking his nose. The remaining three tightened their grip in order to further limit John's movements but he knew that wouldn't work either. Their instructors had taught them what to do in situations like this and, based on what he could see, John knew exactly what was happening as well as what would happen. Certain patterns existed in hand-to-hand combat if you knew where to look and had eyes sharp enough to detect them. If there was one thing guaranteed to lead to defeat it was being predictable in your actions.

Even as he watched John duck and slip out of the grips of his attackers, he felt something… strange… but it wasn't a physical sensation. It was more like an emotion but somehow instinctively he knew it wasn't his. Anger, aggression and something else seemed to do circuits in his mind but he was still at a loss to determine their source. He was still fairly certain that they weren't his emotions so, if he followed that line of logic, then they had to be coming from someone else. Looking at John, he could tell that the emotions weren't coming from him because, just like Chief Mendez had taught them, you had to stay in control both mentally as well as physically in a fight. Looking at the man who'd been instructing him and the others for six years now, he immediately concluded that he wasn't the source either.

That left only one possibility: the four unknown men attacking John.

"Stand down!" came a booming male voice across the expanse of the gym.

Looking towards the source, he saw a man in a sergeant's uniform stepping away from the entrance to the gym on the far side of the room. Unlike Mendez, though, this guy was a little overweight and looked amused rather than stoic. John immediately recognized the man's rank and snapped to attention but the four unknowns just continued to glare at their target.

"Sarge…" the man with the bleeding and broken nose said. "We were just-"

"Did I ask you a question?" the Sergeant barked in inquiry.

"No, Sergeant!" the bleeding man promptly replied.

"If you're all so eager to fight then get in the ring and go at it," the Sergeant declared, glancing briefly at the location in question.

"Sir!" John said as he prompting did as he'd been told to do and got into the ring.

He knew what was happening but he didn't think that John realized the full truth of the situation. If the emotions he was feeling, the ones that he was certain were nor his own, were true, then there was no lethal intent in any of the four men. There was anger, aggression and maybe a desire to do harm but nothing that made him think they would actively try to kill John. For his friend, though, he knew that his fellow SPARTAN had a rather simple view of the world: there were only three types of people in the world. The first were his superior officers that he was to obey without question. The second were his fellow SPARTANs that he had to protect at all cost. The third were targets that he had to take down just like he'd been trained to do the last six years. Life was just that simple for John. For him, though, he knew that no unauthorized personnel would be aboard the UNSC Carrier Atlas at the moment and, judging by the physical condition of John's attackers, they were UNSC soldiers. This was only confirmed when he focused on the upper arm of one of the hostiles and saw the tattoo of a flaming skull with the letter inscribed below it. It was a symbol he'd seen tattooed in the same place on some of their instructors and he knew it stood for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

John was about to fight fellow soldiers, even if the four men weren't acting like comrades at the moment. John, however, didn't seem to realize this and that meant that he'd likely go all out on his four opponents. Looking at Chief Mendez, he wondered if the man realized the error in judgment one of his students had made and what it could potentially lead to. His teacher's face might as well have been carved from stone for all it gave away and he got the sense that calmness was the dominant emotion in his instructor at the moment.

His attention shifted though as the feelings of anger and aggression that had been circling his brain spiked to double their previous strength, causing him to turn his head back towards the right. His gaze arrived just in time to see one of the men leaning against the ropes with John in front of him but not moving at all. He tried to see if he could be more selective with whose emotions he was sensing by focusing on that one person but he felt nothing. Not anger or aggression or even pain. He… felt… NOTHING. He wasn't given time to contemplate this as the other three men moved to attack, with one of them wielding an iron bar. John sidestepped the blow by the armed man, grabbing the gripping hand before twisting it, crushing the bones in the process. A snap kick was then executed towards the second of the still standing men, catching him in the groin, generating a sharp cracking sounding consistent with a bone breaking. John then pulled the bar free from the crushed hand before swinging it at the former owner's neck, sending the man flying over the ropes of the ring.

All in all the fight had taken under ten seconds to finish and of all the opponents only one ODST looked like he was still alive.

The others weren't moving and he couldn't feel ANYTHING from them.

The emotions of anger and aggression he'd been feeling had vanished leaving him with just his own emotions to deal with.

Those were pretty strong at the moment even though he had them contained for the most part thanks to his training.

"At ease, number one-one-seven," Chief Mendez barked, causing John to drop the iron bar.

Mendez strode towards the right and, like they'd been invisible up until then, the sergeant who'd suggested they enter it noticed them or, more precisely, the man noticed the Chief.

"Chief Mendez, sir!" the sergeant exclaimed, snapping off a crisp salute. "What are you—"

The dots seemed to connect inside the surprised man's head as he looked at John, then at him before returning his gaze to Mendez.

"Medics are on their way. There are two intel officers waiting for you in Ops," Mendez said with complete seriousness and professionalism. "They'll debrief you and I suggest you report to them immediately."

"Yes sir!" the Sergeant said performing another salute before almost running from the gym.

With that done Mendez walked over to John and said, "Your workout is over for today. You too, zero-six-nine."

A part of him wanted to point out that he hadn't even had a workout but, considering what had just happened, what he personally had experienced, he didn't think he could do a proper workout for hours. As John turned and walked in his direction with Chief Mendez, medics entered the room with stretchers and proceeded to examine the four ODSTs in order to give priority to the most seriously wounded. He could've told them that only the one with what he suspected was a shattered pelvis needed help but his body just fell into step with John and Mendez as they all left the gym.

"Permission to speak, sir?" John asked, looking up at their instructor.

Mendez nodded.

"Were those men part of a mission?" John asked, sounding uncertain about what he'd done. "Were they targets or teammates?"

"You engaged and neutralized a threat," Mendez replied promptly and without hesitation. "That action seems to have answered your question, Squad Leader."

"I followed the chain of command," John said, his brow wrinkled in thought. "The sergeant told me to fight. I was threatened and in immediate danger. But they were still UNSC Special Forces. Fellow soldiers."

"Not every mission has simple objectives or comes to a logical conclusion," Mendez said with a lowered voice. "Your priorities are to follow the orders in your chain of command and then to preserve your life as well as the lives of your team. Is that clear?"

"Sir, yes sir," John said only momentarily looking back at the doors that led to the gym.

"What about you, zero-six-nine?" Mendez asked as he looked at him. "Do you understand?"

"Yes sir. It's just…" he said trying to put what he was thinking and feeling into words.

"Just what?" Mendez asked looking for clarification even as John looked on.

"Those men were UNSC ODST. I saw their tattoos and their moves were like the ODSTs that trained us," he replied, finally managing to sort out his mind. "I might not know why they wanted to fight John but I don't believe lethal force was required. It would have been enough just to render them unconscious or physically incapable of continuing the fight."

"In this case you're right," Mendez said with a nod that caused John to snap his eyes towards his instructor. "It brings up the reason I stopped you from helping one-one-seven. Both of you have been told that the augmentations you've received have made you faster, stronger and smarter than you were before. Those are just words, though, and they don't have the same impact as actions. After this incident you now both have an idea of what your bodies are now capable of and they're only going to get better until your body finishes maturing. That's why it's going to be important for the both of you, for all the SPARTAN IIs, to train to fully understand what your bodies are capable of so you can ensure complete control over your actions. Precision is a key component in everything a soldier does because, if they're not precise, the mission could be put at risk along with his allies. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" both he and John replied at the same time stopping to fire of crisp salutes.

It made sense now.

Everything the Chief had done since he'd stopped him from interfering in the fight. While a part of him would've still preferred the three dead ODSTs had lived, he conceded that their deaths were not without meaning. Seeing what John had been able to do and remembering the sparring sessions with the instructors prior to the augmentations, he could see the leap forward all their bodies had undergone. Right then and there he resolved to begin discovering his new physical limitations so he could begin devising control exercises for his body. He would need to access any records of their previous training sessions so he could get exact figures of their previous bests so they could match the feel of their movements to what needed to be done. After all, what felt like him giving his all now might wind up being six times more than it'd been prior to the augmentations. Currently he could not rely on how his body felt to judge how much power or speed he was putting into an attack.

He needed to relearn everything all over again.

They all did.

And he would help them by being the first to get his body and mind back into proper sync.

Well… maybe second to get everything back under control.

John always did tend to be first when it came to the physical training.