Hey all! Forgive me for taking so long, and forgive me for doing this, but I must: this is the last chapter! Hopefully it meets with reader approval. I'd like to thank all my readers/reviewers for their enthusiasm and patience, couldn't have done it without you!

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Halo: Combat Evolved or from any of the books.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Reunions and Endings

April 3, 2558

UNSC Survey Ship Aquilae

Four years later

Laura had had to pull a few strings to allow a survey of this area; and even more strings to get both herself and her husband on the ship. Well, technically we're not married, but we might as well be, she mused as she studied 'classified' ONI reports from the original mission to the planet Onyx. Apparently a nuclear blast had destroyed the entire world, which had been artificially created in the first place. Laura wasn't sure why she had to see for herself, but something was calling her to that system; it was the same feeling she got on clear spring nights, when she felt the call of the hills. Something's missing, something we've overlooked, but what? Her thoughts were interrupted by soft, heavy footfalls on the deck; there was only one person with that tread.

"Still not comfortable on ships, John?" she asked with a small smile on her face.

"I'd much rather have my feet on the ground," John replied as he slid into an empty chair next to Laura. "How soon until we arrive?"

"Ten minutes I think. They're going to call us when we get in system." She looked away from the reports, and John saw genuine concern in her eyes. "I don't know what we'll find there. If these reports are true, there's nothing to find, but I can't help but feel that there's something we've overlooked."

"We'll see what we find when we get there." He touched her face, raising it to eye level with his own. "If you have a feeling like that, since you have Forerunner memories in your head, there's probably something to them."

She smiled. "Hey, you have Forerunner memories too. And yet, you still think I have some special intelligence." Her dark eyes sparkled with her teasing words, and John recalled the first time he'd seen the laughter in her eyes: the first time he and his team had eaten dinner with her and her mother, and Laura had joked about the rolls.

"My memories are more of a lovesick captain's than of a respected scientist's," he replied, his smile matching hers perfectly.

"Hardly respected, seeing as she was barely known," Laura mused, dropping her eyes to the deck. John cupped her chin in one hand and made her look into his eyes again.

"She had his respect, and his love, that's all that mattered." Just like you have mine, he thought, and Laura saw it in his eyes. For the next five minutes, she forgot about the files in front of her, the fact that they were both on a ship heading into unknown territory, and the fact that they were sitting in an area where anyone could walk in on them. Fortunately, no one did, and when they broke apart John grinned.

"That was close."

"Yeah, that was close. What were you thinking?" she teased.

"I was thinking about how best to keep you from worrying." He gently touched the side of her face, brushing back a wayward strand of dark hair, leaning in closer once again…

"All hands, standby for Slipspace exit. Repeat, standby for Slipspace exit."

Laura rose at the announcement, pulling her dark hair back into a simple knot, and headed for the bridge, closely followed by her 'husband'. Just as she entered the bridge, she saw the void of Slipspace resolve into stars and suns. Where the planet Onyx used to be was a blank void in the system. A sensor to her right began to blare, and a technician studied the readout, a puzzled look on his face.

"What is it?" The tech, startled by the seemingly sudden appearance of two formidable uniformed lieutenants, jerked around in surprise. Laura was getting really annoyed by these reactions every time someone saw her in uniform. Why are they afraid of me? I'm still human, just like any of them, and yet they're still scared.

"Ma'am, there's a subspace anomaly on the sensors. It's nothing the computers have ever seen before."

"Let's see it, son." The tech pulled the image up on a large display, and watched as the lieutenant studied it intently. She seemed to frown, and moved to speak to the captain.

"Sir, I respectfully request that we move closer and investigate this anomaly. This is something we've never encountered before, and it would do well to obtain a full record for analysis." Laura neglected to point out, however, that this particular anomaly was originating exactly from where the planet Onyx used to be.

"As true as that may be, Lieutenant, my first priority is the safety of my ship and crew." Ah, he's a cautious man, good.

"Of course, Captain. I don't expect you to waste lives for no reason. However, it would still be possible to observe this anomaly and jump to Slipspace if any danger presented itself, would it not?"

"Yes, it would, but why is ONI interested in spatial anomalies?" The captain clearly was a perceptive man, as well as cautious.

"ONI has its reasons, and it's hardly my place to question. Our orders are clear: observe any and all spatial phenomenon in this sector. If you're worried for your crew, I believe I can assure you that there is minimal risk in this sector from spatial anomalies." How do I know? I can't know that but I do. Wait…oh boy. She was remembering research from another life, research on alternate dimensions.

"Very well. Navigation, move us closer to the coordinates of the spatial anomaly. Begin data recording as soon as we're in range." Laura felt the ship slide forward smoothly as they headed closer. Something nagged at her, as if she was supposed to remember something about this anomaly, but what it was she couldn't say. Then it came to her all of a sudden. A portal to an alternate dimension would show up as this type of anomaly, she remembered as a flash of memory drifted past. She motioned to John and moved to the rear of the bridge.

"John, it's a doorway. Alaya realized this kind of anomaly would occur every time a portal was made to an alternate dimension in space. Something's coming through, and I can only guess as to what."

"More Covenant?"

"No, not exactly, I don't think so. Maybe Forerunners, or it could be something completely different. At this point it could be anything." Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden alert from one of the bridge officers.

"Sir, reading multiple contacts inbound from the spatial anomaly! I count at least four large vessels and several smaller ships."

"All hands to battle stations! Red alert!" the captain shouted.

"Belay that!" Laura found herself snapping. "Those ships would tear us to pieces. Tactically, we have no chance."

"Lieutenant, you will maintain silence or you will be removed from the bridge," the captain said coldly.

"I doubt it. For one thing, ONI is the one responsible for this survey, and I will only answer to them. Most of the time I won't interfere, but this is an exception. Our ships would never withstand a battle against these forces, surely you must see that."

"Then what would you suggest? The last time we tried to communicate with an alien race we were plunged into a war!"

"Do you think I don't know that? I lost my father and my older brother in that war, and nearly lost everything else I cared about!" Laura's hands shook almost imperceptibly as she struggled to regain control, eventually recomposing herself. "Even so, I think communication is our best course of action. Make sure everyone is ready to jump out, though, in case things get ugly."

Not waiting for the captain's reply, Laura moved to a communications console and began tapping commands; if her hunch and the files from ONI were correct, these were Forerunner ships they were facing off against. She finished the typing and sent a burst signal: Hope springs eternal, but what hope have we against so many? She remembered Alaya saying something like that when she was designing the weapons that the HALO stations would later be equipped with. Laura crossed her fingers, hoping someone would understand it.

Onboard Alaya's Hope, Fred, Dr. Halsey, and their Forerunner companion Arisaya read the strange transmission received from the ship. Something about it seemed familiar, but it took a long while for any of them to figure it out.

"Alaya said that once," Arisaya murmured at last. "I remember reading it in our histories. She spoke of the Flood and how the fight was almost hopeless when she said that."

"But if Alaya said it, how could any humans know of it?" Dr. Halsey mused. Fred didn't dare say anything yet, but he had a feeling as to who had sent the cryptic communiqué.

"Do I dare respond to them? Could it be a trick?" Arisaya asked, ignoring Arnyris' attempts to get her attention, since she knew what his response would be. Warriors, they see only destruction, she thought in annoyance.

"Let me send a response," Fred spoke finally. "I have a feeling I know exactly who sent it."

"Sir, receiving a communication from the lead ship!" the communications officer cried. A moment later his voice filled with awe. "It's on the E-band."

"Play it," the captain ordered. Laura and John listened with mounting hope as a familiar six-tone melody played through the speakers. Their eyes met, and the shared look said Spartans. John felt relief rising in his chest, remembering how four years ago they'd disappeared. They're still alive!

"Captain, permission to open a channel to the lead ship."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant." At the response, John moved forward and slipped on a personal headset, closing the private channel.

"Oly Oly Oxen Free. All out in the free, we're all free."

Two hours later, a Pelican docked with Alaya's Hope, and unloaded a Captain and two lieutenants: one sported a golden eagle insignia on his uniform, while the other wore a plain black uniform with a pair of crossed silver knives embroidered on the right side. Fred immediately recognized the two officers, and felt glad his hunch had been correct. He, Linda, and Kelly moved forward, past the captain and to the lieutenant striding just behind him.

"Good to see you again, John," Fred smiled slightly.

"Fred, Linda, Kelly. I never thought I'd see you again. What's going on? Where's Will?" John didn't understand any of what was going on. At that moment a gasp of surprise was heard as the ship's crew finally noticed Laura standing near the Pelican. She was the only one who seemed completely at ease, apart from the other three Spartans. Staring around her with a nonchalant look on her face, she finally moved up.

"I had a feeling there were still Forerunners around, hidden away somewhere. Never thought they'd hide in another dimension though. Whoever did think of that was thinking on their feet. How'd you find them, Fred?" Dark eyes flickered to the SPARTAN-IIIs standing in the background, and back to Fred. "And who're the squirts?"

"Nice to see you too, Blade." Fred grinned as she swung a punch at his head, deliberately missed him and nailed him lightly in the shoulder.

"You're lucky I've mellowed out recently. Now, care to explain what's going on, or do I need to do some snooping?" Her dark eyes glittered, betraying her relief at seeing them again, especially Linda, whom she had almost been close to. She didn't recognize the other one at first, but after a few moments her name came back clearly, accompanied by memories of a trip to Reach. "Kelly?"

"I would have thought you'd forgotten," Kelly said quietly.

"Hardly. You were the only good thing I remember from that trip. What happened to you? Where'd you wind up after Reach?"

Fred was about to answer when Arisaya and Arnyris entered the room, stopped short, and uttered an exclamation of surprise. Here was her very ancestor in the flesh! Or was it? Looking closer, Arisaya perceived that the woman standing in front of her was not Alaya: her face, though still looking young, was more careworn, and there were lines that hinted at a deep sorrow long buried. The woman looked at her and nodded, seeming unsurprised by anything that might be happening here. She looked at Fred and said something in a language that Arisaya could barely understand, even after four years of learning from Dr. Halsey.

"I see we have a lot of catching up to do, starting with Alaya's descendant. I assume she is such?" Fred nodded, and the woman seemed satisfied. Her dark eyes sparkled, and a faint smile appeared on her face when she saw Arnyris and his squad of warriors. "Oh yes, definitely a lot of catching up to do."

Epilogue

The old woman wandered through her house, looking for something, if only she could remember what. Kelly, that was it, she needed to find Kelly. When did the house get so big? It was never this big before. She lived alone now, as alone as she had for many years, but it didn't bother her anymore. No one really visited her, everyone she'd known was gone, and she faded into the background. Her life had been like that for years, but this was different: no one hated her anymore, no one wanted her dead.

"Mom, what are you doing wandering around? And without your cane even!" A male voice brought her wandering mind back to the present, and to her son who had snuck up on her from behind. A smile graced her wrinkled features: they'd taught their children well.

"Sam, since when have I needed a cane to get around my own house?" she asked, her voice creaking and kindly, an echo of the lilting melody it used to be.

"Since you fell last June and fractured your hip. Now what were you looking for?" Sam wasn't about to let the matter rest; he'd inherited her stubbornness, as well as his father's strength.

"I was looking for your sister. Where is Kelly?" Then she remembered: Kelly was at the doctor's, because her son had gotten sick. Sam was checking on her now. "I wanted to see your father."

"Mom, you know what the doctor said: no more graveyard visits. You're too old for those." Sam gently steered her back to her room, thinking this was the end of the matter.

As soon as he'd closed the door, the woman pulled on an old, faded uniform: two faded silver knives winked at her in the dim light. My son doesn't know his old mother well enough, obviously. She glanced around the room, looking for a certain spot and frowning at the dingy colors. I'll have to ask Sam and Kelly to look at the lights in here, I can't remember it ever being this dark. A gentle push on part of the wall revealed a small passageway, one that hadn't been used in years. She moved quickly through, her eyes needing no light to see where she was going. Navigating the twists and turns, she was soon outside and on her way to the cemetery.

There it was, just where she remembered it: the marble headstone marking his grave. She traced the words in the marble, remembering the day she'd carved them in the stone:

John Spartan (2511-2612)

Master Chief Petty Officer, UNSC Navy

Lover, Father, Husband all,

Noble fighter to the last.

You saved our lives, and asked no thanks,

Yet we remember all now past.

The old woman smiled at the memories, from when she had first met him on Reach all those years ago, when he'd come to Earth and they'd been forced to work together, everything. She chuckled at the memory of his face when Fred, Linda, and Kelly had returned seemingly from the dead, and the weeks that had followed. Those SPARTAN-IIIs were a handful and a half those first few weeks, she mused, recalling how she'd had to thrash the three of them hollow a few times.

"John, do you remember those days? Remember how we had to completely reeducate the Covenant, and how we had to get to know the Forerunners? Remember all the difficulty we had with those rug rats Fred brought back? I never thought I'd miss those days, but now I do." She sighed, a low whisper of air in the cold wind. "Maybe it's because I'm alone. I miss you, John, more than anything, even my parents and my brothers. Although," she chuckled, a dry creaking sound, "you probably wouldn't recognize me by now. I can't move, I'm going blind and deaf, and my face looks more like a raisin than a human face. I got old, and it shows. Guess at a hundred and one even my youthful looks can't last." She laid her old head on the marble headstone, lank white hair billowing in the breeze, but she didn't feel the cold.

"You never got old in my eyes, alaya," a familiar voice murmured, an iron-like sound she hadn't heard for over a year. Raising her head, she saw him clearly: John, as she'd seen him when he'd arrived on earth all those years ago.

"John?" she asked, noticing her own voice sounded different; she sounded several decades younger, the voice she'd used to sing her children and her brother's children to sleep. "Is it possible?"

"You should've known better than to ignore a doctor's advice." The look on his face betrayed him: he was glad to see her again, in spite of her looking so decrepit.

"It would've happened sooner or later, John," she retorted, feeling herself smiling as she hadn't in a while. "It's time, isn't it?"

He nodded, then his face broke into a grin. "Care for a run?" he asked as he held out his hand. She took it, and noticed her own hand was smooth and firm. Tugging on a strand of her hair, she saw it was dark and wavy, like it had been so long ago. Looking at him again, she returned his grin.

"Think you can keep up?" Hand in hand, they ran together, seeing everything from their past lives, and the people they knew. Nothing could stand in their way: they were free.

Two days later, a crowd gathered in the graveyard, honoring another hero laid to rest. Side by side on the tombstone were two names: John Spartan (2511-2612) and Laura Morisson Spartan (2511-2613). And carved beneath her name the words:

Special Operations Officer, UNSC Navy

A secret hidden in plain sight

Faced human cruelty each day.

Yet still she served, her deeds unknown,

With strength no being could take away.

"I don't understand. Why did she slip out? She knew she'd never last," the man murmured, still feeling guilty for letting his guard down.

"Sam, whenever Mom wanted something, nothing would stand in her way," his twin sister replied. "Remember all the times she and Dad would argue? Sometimes even he couldn't stop her, and he was one of the few people who could." Kelly smiled, tears gathering in her eyes as she remembered those happier days. "No one could keep her down. I'm just glad she has some peace."

"Me too," he agreed quietly. "She deserved it."