Chapter 6

Location: destroyed outpost 17-A

Highground was destroyed. Maine, now called the Meta, was looked at blue base, smiling. He intended to find more A.I. to add to his…..collection. He planned to gather and put all the A.I. back with the Alpha. The door, weapons, everything was in ruins.

"I knew she was here," said one voice in Maine's head.

"Me too," he said.

"We need to find delta," another voice said.

"Agreed!" all the voices said at once. Not too long ago, the outpost was a beautiful place to be an outpost, and then the Meta came, looking for the A.I. Sage. In the events of not finding her here, the Meta set charges in key points of the outpost, and blew it to ruins. As Maine was turning around, there was to touch of cold metal at his forehead.

"Why'd you do it, Maine?" the purple armor said.

"Ah, Dakota, why am I not surprised to see you here?" Maine said, trying to act cool. It didn't work. Dakota pushed the barrel of the gun deeper into his forehead. Maine knew she would pull the trigger. He automatically was scared.

"Look Dakota, I can explain," Maine said, kneeling now with fear.

"Maine I loved you. How could you do this?" Dakota asked, almost crying.

"I know, oh and when you get back to command, tell the director, "You were right about me."

"Kill her Maine and retrieve delta, now!" one of the voices said within his helmet.

"I'm sorry, Dakota," Maine said, going back to the Meta. The Maine that Dakota knew was long dead.

"You son of a bitch!" Dakota said, firing the magnum at him. Dakota was back peddling, while firing on the Meta. Meta pulled the brute shot. Dakota stopped where she was. She knew how deadly the brute shot was. But she didn't care. The Meta would either kill her, or get delta. Dakota continued to fire the magnum, and then she heard a click.

"Damn," she said, discarding it. Dakota pulled out her Assault Rifle. Dakota stepped backwards and tripped. It was a bubble shield. Before she could deploy it, Meta fired a grenade from the brute shot. Dakota grabbed it and said, "Here, eat this," before throwing it at the Meta. He was stunned, temporarily. Dakota then turned and jumped on the partly destroyed outlook center, and then deployed it. The shield went up just as Meta fired.

"Delta report!" Just as Dakota said that, a vortex appeared behind them.

"Dakota, unknown force of matter detected, I highly recommend evasive maneuvers. Chances are that-" Delta said, before the Meta, Dakota, delta, and the bubble shield got sucked into the vortex.

Location: Blood Gulch outpost Alpha

Tucker, Simmons, and Grif carried Sarge into his room. Sarah was holding Sarge's handwhole way to his room. Tucker came to Sarge's door, where it had a keypad.

"Damn, hey Simmons, you know the code right?"

"Uh yeah, he told me it once though, but I can't remember." Just as Simmons said that, the non-infected side of Sarge said the code. "5…..7…..2, then he fell silent. Tucker punched in the code and the door opened. Church came and went over to the COM station.

"Hello, this is private Church speaking"

"Hello, this is the Commander, is your Sergeant there?" Church just stood there. Her voice sounds so soft. The voice reminds me of someone, Church thought.

"Private come outside for a minute, please," The commander said. Church went outside and saw her. Church read the name tag and it said KEYES on it. Church was so happy that he automatically hugged her. Keyes pushed him away. "Who the hell are you?" Keyes said. Church pulled his helmet off and Keyes recognized him. She didn't know what to do, either shake his hand or kiss him. She did what she wanted to do. She lunged herself at Church and they stood there kissing for one minute and a half. Tex came around the corner, and then walked backwards. Tex saw them, and she felt lost. How he do this to me? Tex thought. She took a deep breath and walked towards them. She tapped him on the shoulder and Keyes and Church broke the kiss. "Hey can I talk to you, alone?" "Sure." They walked away when Tex exploded.

"How could you do this to me?"

"Hey I haven't seen her in like forever"

"You could have at least told me when she was coming to visit"

"I didn't know she was coming, but look, I'm sorry, ok"

"You could've at least filled me in"

"I know but…" Church knew she was about to hit him. He also knew that when she got this angry, to watch our for a thrown chair or plate. Tex automatically calmed down. There was an explosion right outside the door. "What the hell was that?" Keyes said, pulling out her pistol she had. Simmons came out of Sarge's room and checked. A purple Spartan came into the base, panting that she survived. Simmons grabbed and shoved her into the wall. "Just tell us who the fuck you are and you won't have a round in your head," Simmons said with a pistol to her head. "My name is Dakota. South Dakota," she said. Washington and California came over and said, "You killed me once Dakota," Washington said. "California, if you would please." California pulled out plasma bonds and put them on her wrists. "Agent South Dakota, you are under arrest," Washington said. "Wash, your going to pay for this," Dakota said, angry for what her friends just did. California noticed some sand on her armor.

"Hey Dakota, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot"

Why is there sand on your armor?" Dakota looked and saw the sand. As she stared at it, it was like she could feel the heat form the blast. Dakota sighed and said, "Wash, which outpost you said you were stationed at?"

"Outpost 17-A, why?"

"Damn," Dakota said. With a sigh, Dakota told Washington about how the Meta destroyed outpost 17-A. "California, release her," and with that, he released Dakota. There was a scream from Sarge's room. Grif came flying out, and hit church. "Dude, get this guy off of me. This is the most humiliating thing I could possibly endure." "Dude, if you knew what I've been through, you wouldn't be saying that," Grif said helping church up after getting up himself. "How's Sarge doing?" Simmons asked Doc, who had just closed the door. "Hard to say but…." Doc said. There was a bang at the door. "He wants to kill Grif. That's all he said." "Go figure," Grif said. "Doc, open the door, that's an Order!" Keyes said. "Unless you want to die," Doc said fighting to keep the door closed. "Sarge, if you can hear me, let go of the door." Sarge let go of the door. Sarah suggested that she go in there, knowing that Sarge couldn't kill her. She took the shotgun and went into the room. Sarge was sitting on his bed, his Flood arm was still. Doc closed the door behind her. Sarah had the shotgun loaded. "Sarah please don't pull the trigger," Sarge said. Sarah didn't know which half of Sarge said that, but it didn't matter. It was either save Sarge or kill him.

The infection had taken his right arm. "Sarge, I don't want to do this," Sarah said, taking aim with the shotgun. Sarge got up, went to Sarah, looked into her eyes and then kissed her. Sarah kissed him back. Then Sarge pulled back from the kiss. He squinted his eyes in pain. The infection was reversing itself. Sarah pulled the tentacle from his neck when the Gravemind took over Sarge's COM and said, "I will spare his life, but under one condition: If he should happen to get infected again, I will not spare him. Keep that in mind, Sarah. I will destroy all of you in ten earth months," then he was gone. "Is he gone?" Sarah asked. "Yeah, he's gone," Sarge lied. Sarge would be part of the Flood forever. Sarge almost collapsed when Sarah caught him, exited the room, and went to the couch. Doc scanned him and said, "He appears to be fine. It's still part of him, though." Grif walked towards the table and said, "What is still part of him?" Sarge, apparently not listening to Grif at the moment, looked to Lopez.

"So what is still part of you Sarge?"

"Gravemind" Keyes gasped. "What's wrong," Church said putting a hand on Keyes's shoulder. Tex was still sad about what happened.

"Gravemind is the head Flood, basically the brain of the Flood. Sarah, when you heard him, what did he say?"

"I don't know," Sarah said shaking her head. "He said that he wasn't going to spare Sarge's life if he got infected again and……" Sarah fell silent. Caboose looked at Stacie and said, "You want another cookie?" Stacie nodded and took the cookie; apparently both Stacie and Caboose were lost in the conversation. Jenny looked at Sarah and said, "And what?" "…..and he will be here in ten months." The base looked at each other. Ten months to get ready for another attack. "So at least ten months before…." Tex also fell silent. "Before DOOMSDAY. On that day when Gravemind comes, everyone will die."

Just then, two more people appeared in the living room. A girl and a boy. Both teenagers were wondering where they were at.

The girl looked around and said, "Hey Alberto, I don't think we are in Texas anymore." "Ariana, I don't even know where we are," Alberto said looking at Church and the others. "Anyways as I was saying, we need to prepare for Gravemind's attack," Keyes was saying to the others.

"Whoa wait. Gravemind is coming here?" Alberto asked.

"Uh yeah why?" Church asked.

"Aw shit. I told you Gravemind was real, Ariana," Alberto said looking at Ariana coldly. "What just because I said he wasn't real, doesn't mean we are going to kill it, right?" She asked looking at Simmons.

Aw well will you look at that. Another Cliffhanger. I would like to thank my friend Ariana for allowing me to put her in my story. Yes, if you have all played Halo 2, then you would be familiar with Gravemind. He plans to destroy the gang. But before that happens, Alberto (which is me) and Ariana will have to go threw some training. And the Meta, well, he will get knocked out by Ariana. Alberto has a crush on Ariana in the story, but how will he tell her. PLZ R&R!