A/N: And heeeeere, we have Blue Team deciding to take a vay-cay (and star-hopping as a result), Noble Team deciding to head to Emile's home planet of Eridanus II, and the two teams of Spartans bump into one another at Luxor Spaceport! Shenanigans ensue! What will these Spartans get up to next!


"I don't think we should go on this mission." John uttered quietly. He had done some thinking after he'd broken down, and he'd come to the decision that it really wasn't wise to go out onto the battlefield whilst his mind wasn't wholly there. And Blue Team would never enter combat without him there with them; they had adopted this motive ever since they'd been reunited a few months back. They were more than a team – they were a family, and they looked after one another.

"What?" Kelly looked confused, towelling her hair after her shower. "What made you change your mind all of a sudden?"

The other Spartan threw her a sidelong glance, shaking his head. "I can't keep fighting. Not when my head isn't in the game. After Cortana died... I just..." He blew out a heavy breath. "I'm not doing so well. Maybe it's time I have a break. And I've been pushing you guys too hard as well. It isn't right."

"I respect your decision, Chief." Linda stated solemnly, giving her fellow a solid clasp on the shoulder. "It's a good line of thinking. I'm going to take a break from fighting as well. Maybe I'll trip to see what happened to Verent and find out if people are trying to resettle."

Fred rubbed his jawline in thought. "I reckon I'll book a spaceflight to Ballast and check out my old haunts. See if I can't remember anything."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt for me to find out what happened to Imber." Kelly mused quietly, her voice muffled because of the towel over her head. "I mean, I defended her when the Covenant invaded, but I never did see if she was successfully glassed or not. We had to evac before that."

John leaned back on his bed, folding his hands over his stomach. "So we all go to see our home planets as a team, and then what? Continue to star-hop? Just... check things out and do things we've always wanted to do but never gotten the chance to?" It sounded like a good idea to him. Relaxing and seeing the sights as a family. Bonding. It was something he had never thought he would get the chance to do, but something he'd always wanted to do. So now he was leaping at the opportunity to spend time with his kin off-duty. Lord Hood had strongly suggested he take a break, and he was going to do just that.

"Well, I don't see why not." Fred remarked, "And we can see what the Gammas and Veta Lopis are up to while we're at it. If ONI lets us, that is."

Kelly snorted derisively and towel-whipped her friend in the rear; the Lieutenant yelped and batted it back at her. "You always want to see what those kids are up to."

"In my defence, they're good soldiers. I mean... they took to us like ducklings that follow anything that is vaguely mother-like... And Veta Lopis at least knows how to treat us Spartans like we're human beings rather than scary soldiers in suits of armour... or robots in suits of armour." Fred bit back.

"Speaking of Veta Lopis... being a detective... we could use someone with her skills." John sat up suddenly, and the others glanced towards him in confusion. "I get the feeling that someone's been poking about in our records. I don't know why but... It feels like there's footprints of someone who's been accessing records before trying to cover up their tracks. And I want to know why. Roland isn't fessing up..."

Linda cocked her head to one side. "Elaborate on what you mean by 'accessing our records'."

"Somebody has been looking at what we've been up to – me in particular – since being aboard the Infinity, and after the first Requiem Campaign. I want to know why." The Chief tapped his fingers on a muscular arm, frowning. It didn't add up to him. Why would anyone have interest in their records, and focus on him in particular? Were they trying to look for him? Was it a subtle hint that they were trying to contact him? Or was it something much worse? He wanted to know.

"And you said that Roland isn't telling you anything. It sounds like he's been helping whoever's trying to access your records." Fred rubbed his jawline in thought. "Only person I could even have the vaguest idea of who would do such a thing is another Spartan. An S-II or an S-III." It didn't make sense to him, either. Why would the AI not divulge on information like that? Why would he help someone access the Spartans' records of recent activities?

"That's something we can look into after we're done star-hopping. Only priorities right now are rest and relaxation." John answered.


Aboard The Athenian, outskirts of Monastir, New Harmony, unknown system, May 12th, 2558

"Ya know, I just realized something," Emile remarked, dangling upside down over the back of the couch. It didn't matter that he was probably too big for the piece of furniture in the first place, nor the fact that he would likely tip it over and knock everyone else who was sitting on it off. He was having too much fun for that.

"And what would that be?" Artemis was curled up on said couch with her feet tucked under her, reading files on her datapad. If he had something to say, he should just spit it out; otherwise her attention would drift back to what she was looking at. She couldn't stand it when people couldn't get to the point – and she had that issue, sure, but speaking wasn't always her strong suit. Even holding conversations with her kin was something she struggled with.

The assault specialist righted himself – surprising, but he had enough respect for his peers to actually make eye contact when holding mildly serious conversations – and gave a shrug. "Well, we've been to everyone's home planets." At a look from Jorge, he corrected himself. "Okay, we've been to New Harmony and Biko, and we can all unanimously agree we're never going back to Reach, at least not for a long time. But we haven't been to my home planet of Eridanus II. I miss home, ya know? I'd like to see what happened since I was last there when I was ... aw, eight years old, I think."

"You make a fair point. And I did see an ad for spaceflights to Eridanus II...somewhere." Carter remarked quietly, doing arm curls with a dumbbell in one corner of the room.

Artemis glanced up at that, and gave the Commander a smirk, arching her eyebrow. "Oh, so you actually paid attention to something that wasn't to do with combat, did you?"

He snorted at that, flicking his eyes towards the ceiling. "Like you pay attention to anything."

"I'm lazy and fuck you." She chucked her datapad at his head and he yelped as it connected with the side of his skull; he caught the object which caused him to drop the dumbbell... right onto his foot. He cursed loudly and shot her a withering glare; the redhead just howled with laughter, falling all over Emile who was in hysterics and had wound up on the floor.

"What did I miss?" Kat wandered into the rec room, brushing out her still-damp hair that now fell in loose waves about her shoulders. She glanced about from Spartan to Spartan in confusion, wondering why Emile and Artemis were losing it on the floor and Carter was holding his foot, wincing and glaring at the same time.

Jorge shrugged, wholly absorbed in some science-fiction novel that he'd pilfered from Jun – something the sniper was still sore about – and answered, "Hell if I know. I'm not paying attention to anything except whether or not Queen Mara T'kasi will-"

The cryptanalyst held up a hand and shook her head to cut him off, before shooting Carter a questioning glance. "Commander? What's going on?"

The Spartan huffed out a breath and massaged his foot, taking a seat on the floor. "Emile was stating about how he wanted to go back to his home planet, I stated that I had seen an ad for spaceflights there, and Artemis snarked at me before chucking her datapad at my head. Of course I caught the thing so it didn't break and I dropped the dumbbell I was doing arm curls with onto my foot."

Kat hid a smirk with her hand and scooped up the pad, handing it back to Artemis, before shaking her head again, though this time in sympathy. "You lot are all a bunch of children, I swear."

Carter muttered something about icing his foot and walking out of the room sulkily; the lone wolf continued chortling before it died down and she wiped her eyes, getting to her feet and helping Emile up. "You missed it, Kat. The look on his face was priceless."

"I can only imagine," the cryptanalyst remarked wryly, tapping her kin on the wrist with her hairbrush, "You do need to burn off your energy. C'mon, let's go to the gym; do a workout."

"Sure, I don't see why not." Artemis bumped shoulders with her Beta fellow and laughed when Kat nudged her back; it sound wound with them charging shoulder-to-shoulder down the hallway and throughout the frigate until they reached the gym.


Carter couldn't figure it out.

Sure, he was used to his team's antics. They'd been doing it for years now. But for some reason, he got the feeling that something had changed. He didn't know what it was, and he was going to work it out. It didn't help, though, that he couldn't get the Lieutenant's laughter out of his head. Why was it ringing in his mind? It was... strangely musical, and familiar, and yet it had never affected him like this before.

Maybe he'd have to listen to some music to drown out the sound. That was always a good idea. Artemis had often suggested –

...why was his mind drifting to her again?

And the look in her eyes when she –

"Arrrgh!" He ground his teeth in frustration and shoulder-checked Jun by mistake, sending the sniper spinning towards the wall nearby; lucky, the man checked himself in time, and turned to the Commander, eyebrows arched in bewilderment.

"Are you alright?" he inquired, looking like he might step forward and shake the older Spartan by the shoulders to grab his attention.

"Honestly, Jun? I don't even know anymore. I think I must be having a bad day because I can't concentrate on anything right now." It was only half of the truth; he couldn't concentrate, but he just wasn't stating why. He rubbed his jawline in thought and heaved a full-body sigh. "Sorry for nearly smashing you into the wall back there."

"Eh, no harm done." the Slav gave a shrug. "So, bad day huh?" He wrapped an arm around the other Spartan's shoulders. "Let me tell you about a little something called baking..."


Luxor Spaceport, Eridanus II, Eridanus System, December 17th, 2558

Eridanus II was the last on the list of homeworlds to visit. Blue Team had spent a week in Imber, then five days in Verent; following that, they spent three weeks in Ballast, all deciding unanimously that Fred's homeworld was a really nice place to be and that they'd have to go again sometime.

Now they were landing on John's home planet, at the Spaceport in Luxor, which was another town not too far from the place where John had grown up, a location named Elysium City.

The Spartans stepped out of the craft, blinking in the sunlight, and immediately deferred to John on what to do, since he had been born here – although, his memories of the place were faded. It had been a long time since any of the Spartans had been home, and all their childhood memories were buried or long forgotten because of everything they'd been through since then.

For a few moments, it seemed like the Chief was frozen, lost in his thoughts, until Fred interrupted with a rather cheerful, "Let's hoof it to Elysium City, shall we?" and John shook his head and then nodded, striding forwards and through the straggling crowd of travellers ahead of them. Most people, upon realizing that there were some very big, powerful-looking soldier types among them, parted out of the way, looking at Blue Team with a mixture of awe, respect, and slight trepidation.

"Nice atmosphere," Kelly remarked, breaking the silence again. They'd all been like this when visiting their own homeworlds; it only made sense that John was the same. Awkward, feeling out of place. Lost and more than mildly confused.

"It's artificial." John answered, although his gaze was focused on someone – or rather, a group of someone's – that seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in the crowd ahead. "You guys seeing what I am? There's other Spartans here, and they look like they're off-duty as well."

"What, you want to go over and say hi?" Fred teased, but his voice trailed off at the end, feeling something familiar about one member of the other group in particular. "Tell me I'm not seeing another Spartan-II. I'm... not, right? That's just a really tall III or IV?"

"No... I mean yes, you are. That's one of our kind." John sounded puzzled. He stared as the towering figure made their way through the crowd with ease, the smaller – but still large by regular human standards – figures trotting after him, though one was spinning in circles as he walked, seemingly taking in the sights as though he, like John, had grown up here.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Kelly glanced at her teammates and darted through the crowd without waiting for them to respond. John shook himself out of his daze for the second time and followed her; Fred and Linda fell into step a few beats later. They were going to tail this Spartan, who was one of their own kind...hopefully, too, they could stop and talk to him. John was sure this one had died, and yet here they were ... but he had to confirm to be sure. He had an inkling of a feeling that this was Jorge-052, someone who had died during the Fall of Reach all the way back in '52. The profile certainly matched, as did the way he moved among the civilians, but John wanted to be sure before making any stupid mistakes.


"Someone's following us." Artemis observed between her teeth, and she heard Jun's intake of breath from somewhere behind her, followed by Emile's snide remark of yeah, no shit. She felt more than saw Jorge beside her glancing over his shoulder, and she stopped short when he let out a choked noise of recognition. "You alright, big man?" she asked gently, and the rest of the team stopped as well, questioning.

"That's-" he began, and then stopped, head swinging from side to side in disbelief. "That's Blue Team. My generation of fellows. But why - ... I thought - ... It doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't have to make sense." There it was – a gravelly rumble, with a note of warmth to it. A voice that Chief Warrant Officer Jorge-052 hadn't heard in so long. And there were pale, muscular figures standing before them. He might not have been on the same team as them during training, nor ever placed on the same roster as them as an adult, but dammit, they were his kin.

"It just is." The voice spoke again, and Jorge found himself face to face with Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. The leader of all Spartans. The Spartan; the Demon that the Covenant feared. And he was someone that Jorge had never seen for many, many years.

"It's good to see you again, Chief. You look well. As do the rest of you." Jorge stated warmly, snapping out of his momentary daze and sticking out his hand for his fellows to shake.

John eyed the hand, and a corner of his mouth twisted up into a wry smirk. "I thought we'd be long past that by now." He ignored Fred's hiss of so he learned something after all, and pulled the bigger Spartan in for a slightly rough hug, clapping the great bear of a man on the back. "Good to see you again too," he returned as he stepped back. "I take it this is your team?"

"Technically, they're his," Jorge cocked his head in Carter's general direction, "But yes. Noble Team. I'm the only one of our number; the rest are IIIs. Good men and women; they're like family, to me."

"You were all on Reach, when it fell, weren't you?" Kelly piped up.

"Yes." Artemis rejoined. "Jorge and I fought the hardest to save her, Reach being our shared home planet and all. Watched my own home city get glassed around me, and it was my first glassing, too. Wasn't fun. Hadn't even been back for years... the damn Covies ruined it all before I could properly recall how much of a crown jewel she was and how much she'd changed since I'd last seen her."

"New Alexandria, correct?" Fred estimated, and the lone wolf gave him a nod. "She was a beautiful city. Can't say I saw much of her, but I'd heard UNSC soldiers mentioning her a lot. It was unfortunate that Reach fell. And not just because she was so strategically important."

The planet had been "home" to all the Spartan-IIs, as well as being Jorge and Artemis' shared planet of origin. And she had been a beautiful planet, too. Some of her sunsets had rivalled those of Sundown's. And her mountains, well. They were something else entirely.

"Speakin' of home planets, this rock we're standin' on is my home planet, so how's about I show y'all what's what? See what I can remember and all that." Emile spoke up, previously atypically subdued since they'd set foot in Luxor's Spaceport.

Carter, who suddenly found that he was the highest ranked out of everyone gathered, despite the fact that half of their number were more combat-experienced Spartan-IIs, gave a shrug of his shoulders at his teammate's request. "I don't see why not. You know what you're doing more than the rest of us – though I can't speak for Blue Team, of course."

"Your memories are most likely fresher than mine, Spartan." John conceded. "By all means, go ahead and show us what you know."