Chapter 20: Catching Up
All the spartans were given private quarters. People believe that "It's the least they deserve" Like most have put it in the past. However this time it was different. They had grown up together doing everything as a team, being in different fireteams didn't matter, they are a family. So here they were all seven reunited spartans in same quarters. It was soothing for all of them, so many of their brothers and sisters had been lost in the war against the covenant and in augmentations.
John was quietly watching their sleeping forms. He should be getting the much needed rest too but...After what happened with Cortana all he has left is his family and that family had been growing smaller every month, week and day of the human-covenant war. It might have sounded foolish for anyone else but he needed to be sure that they were really there. At one point he thought that he was the last. Last survivor of the infamous race of spartan supersoldiers. Then they had come back. Blue team, his team. It had been one of the greatest moments of his live and now they had found out that Red team had survived. Alice, Jerome and Douglas alive and well. They told us that they coudn't fight anymore. Their augmentations failed but that didn't stop them. No, later they were re-augmented and spartan Red team was created.
John was brought from his thoughts by sudden movement next to him. He turned and noticed Alice had sat down next to him. Both just sat there for a while, neither finding the words that needed to be said. Finally it was Alice who broke the silence "You should be sleeping". It was a simple statement but also very correct one.
"Haven't slept very well after the events of past few weeks". Chief answered sadness evident in his low bass like voice.
"Yeah Fred filled us in, im sorry John". She stated simply. Alice wanted to question him about how he got so attached with an AI, but seeing the state he was currently in made her rethink her strategy of approach. "You two must have seen helluva lot for you to get so attached to…Well anyone". It was no secret spartans weren't supposed to get attached. Their sibling bond was supposed to be farthest it can go. Chief however went much further, he was always so stoic, the heroic leader of spartans with flawless service record, never dissobeying orders but for this AI, simple tool he had broken direct orders from the current captain of the Infinity. Of course she had noticed that Jerome had got a little bit attached to Isabella but didn't think it would affect their mission. John however went AWOL for a tool.
Her line of thought was cut when John suddenly spoke "Im sure they have told you about the little halo campaign of mine. Alpha and Delta halo's, the flood, covenant and its prophets and making nice with the sangheili Arbiter". Chief went silent for a moment clearly revisiting old memories. She coudn't tell if they were bad or good, his face showed absolutely no emotion. Even less than last time she had seen him. "Blue team wasn't there. I believed they were dead. At one point I was certain that I was the last spartan alive". Chief shook his head and continued "However there was this single AI. This AI was with me the entire journey from Alpha halo to High Charity. She was forced to stay behind when it was apparent that flood might escape the Covenant city if somebody didn't work as a failsafe. She would have detonated In Amber Clads reactor if the flood tryed to escape. Later during the battle of ark I rescued her from the remains of High Charity. She was tortured by the Gravemind to give the location of earth". This time his face was full of emotion sadness and anger radiated from his features. "I wasn't fast enought...I should have been faster. The things Gravemind did to her...I didn't even know AI's could be…". He trailed off and Alice desided that she should drop the subject for now.
John however desided otherwise and continued "Now the Cortana I knew seems to be all but gone. She's cold, manipulative and calculative. It's ironic really from being the sole reason the galaxy we know still exicst to being the one to destroy everything I value and care about". John was looking at the floor his hands were balled to fists, it was clear this was hard subject and he didn't share this with everyone.
"You said she was the sole reason our galaxy still exiscts how we know it, why? Weren't you part of that?" She questioned. John lifted his gaze to match her's. He was quiet for a moment and then stated "If she woudn't have been there to stop me...I would have wiped the entire galaxy from sentient life". At this Alice's jaw fell lightly open "What do you mean John?" She asked confused.
"Alice I would have activated Halo without knowing fully what it does...Guilty Spark told me that it will eradicate all the flood. What was true form certain point of view...It eradicates all flood by killing their food. So yeah…" Chief's gaze turned glassy but he didn't cry...Spartans do not cry. "She has saved my life so many times ive lost count at this point but when the moment came when she needed my help the most...I failed to help her. She is what she is cause I made her so...I wasn't strong enought".
For the time Alice had known John she had never heard him speak so much. John was the type of person who showed his emotions and caring with actions not words but even the hero of the USNC and the demon of the Covenant had a breaking point. She guessed she was his.
"You are thinking how could I have come so attached to a AI. Yeah that's what I thought too...At first but when I worked with her she started to become...Something else". John gave a sad laught and continued "She had more personality and character than I ever did. In ways she was always more human than I am".
"She was your humanity and you were her strenght" Alice thought out loud. She slowly started seeing what happened between the two. John was always so cought up in his military career that he forgot what it felt to be human. Cortana was so civilian that she was more nusence than asset but when John worked with her he must have noticed how easy it was simply being with her, how easy it is to share secrets and thoughts that only belonged to them.
It was at this moment Alice realised what was going on. She looked at John and saw what he coudn't see or just coudn't understand. He was never tought the art of love but that doesn't matter. Chief was stoic and military like, he needed a person who can see trought his spartan armor, dark humor and lack of emotional output. This Alice knew well every spartan had emotion but they rarely showed them to anyone outside their own sircle. This Cortana must have been a helluva woman to get John to show his emotions or maybe she just worked with him so well that she learned to read them on her own?
Then Alice noticed something was off. John was still looking at the ground but she noticed that the other spartans weren't sleeping. "It's rude to earsdrop others conversations". She said and the other spartans got up. Not single sign of shame written on their face.
It was Jerome that spoke first "John we are with you, you know that? Whatever it takes or whatever you need, we are there for ya".
"You should get some sleep I have a feeling that the coming days are going to be full of "Distractions"". Kelly continued. Linda and Douglas gave him a curt nod.
With this John actually felt there was something right in the universe. With his brothers and sisters help everything could be possible. Maybe Cortana was not completely lost after all.
Allright I know this is quite sappy but I felt like even the always so stoic Master Chief ahd to went everything out at some point. Since Cortana isn't avaible. His family is the best option for him. Spartans do not share their conserns with outsiders but when they are together...Everything is different.