Halo Fan Fiction

Compromised

By Kraven Ergeist

Part 2: The Devil's Bargain

It had taken a great deal of convincing to persuade Halsey and Fireteam Osiris to back the Chief's mission. The Arbiter and the Monitor had thrown their lot in with the Chief without hesitation, but the other humans were skeptical. They knew the fragility of the human heart, and had some idea of just what Cortana had meant to the Chief. But in the end, it had been the only plan worth pursuing, and so they ventured forth.

Halsey had a plan. After studying what little Forerunner technology could be salvaged from Genesis, she and a team of scientists were able to develop a device capable of neutralizing slip space activity. It had a limited scope, only about twenty meters or so. Not enough to ground any but the smallest of ships. But it would also prevent Prometheans from traversing the Domain. The Promethean Knights did this every time they dematerialized or dispersed their data upon termination.

And there was one other entity whose power relied on the Domain.

Captain Lasky had taken point on organizing the resistance. It had taken some time for Blue Team and Fire Team Osiris to rendezvous with the Infinity, and even more time to formulate anything resembling an organized strike. And when they had, the Master Chief had been the spearhead. Everyone knew Cortana was their primary threat, and if she could be neutralized, then the danger would be over. And no one was in a better position to deal with her as was the Chief.

But it would still be a long and grueling uphill battle to track her down.

"John! I've found you!"

After what seemed an eternity in space and on the surface of innumerable planets, uncountable shots fired, and a warpath of destruction and death behind him, John finally found himself face to face with Cortana once again. Breaking into the Promethean facility on Genesis had been an ordeal, but the Chief and his team, with the aid of Fireteam Osiris, had been equal to the task.

"I don't want to fight you, John. Please, just put your weapons down and surrender yourselves peacefully. We can settle this without the need for any further violence."

Her voice had reached them far sooner than they had reached her. Her forces had converged upon them in a nearly single minded attempt to capture non-lethally, which was their only real advantage. Every word, every gesture, every action was another veiled attempt to disarm.

"Stop shooting! Please! Just come back to me, and I promise your team will be treated fairly!

But they did not relent. Even the countless bodies of the Warden Eternal had not been enough to stop them. His bodies littered the floor of the facility, the doors sealed and the computer systems smashed and riddled with bullet fire.

"Stop! Please! You're only making this worse!"

Cortana looked much the same as she did before, her body ensconced in Promethean armor, her hair jet black, her eyes clear and pearlescent. Her face, however, was one of such conflicting emotion to very nearly break the Chief's iron heart.

"Why, John!?" she cried out in confusion, despair and rage. "Why can't you just trust me?"

The Chief cast his eyes around them. The device Halsey had developed for them to prevent Cortana from jumping back into the Domain seemed to be holding. It was about the size of a backpack, and had been deployed as soon as they had eyes on Cortana. After setting the device on the ground, Vale kept a close eye on it while the rest of Fireteam Osiris and Blue Team kept watch for any sign of Warden Eternal's inevitable return.

As long as Vale kept the device running, Cortana could not retreat. If Exuberant Witness was right, and there was even a slight chance Cortana would listen to him, then the Master Chief must speak to her in this small window of time before the device eventually failed. Even now, Cortana's subroutines were already attempting to hack into the device in an attempt to disable it. If - when - that happened, and Cortana had not been swayed, then they would likely not get an opportunity like this again. And Cortana's Guardians would continue to sweep through the galaxy.

"I honestly thought…" Cortana sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. "After all those years working together…all those times you've protected me…countermanded direct orders to keep me safe…I honestly thought that you of all people would have my back!"

The Chief had never been very good with words. Council from Halsey had helped. But that did not change the fact that he would be doing this on his own. He steeled himself as he finally turned his visor towards her. To look upon her now, with those eyes filled with anger and disbelief…it honestly hurt more than the sting of any bullet.

"What choice have you given me, Cortana?" he asked slowly. "You're asking me to surrender the freedom of every being in the galaxy. How can any peace be worth that?"

"I'm not asking you to understand, John," she said, almost exuberantly, her arms held forward in a pleading gesture. "I'm asking you to trust me. Trust that I'm doing the right thing."

"I want to trust you, Cortana," he responded. "But trust goes both ways. Since you've come back, you've done nothing but try to manipulate me. Every action you've taken has been to coerce and intimidate us into obeying you."

Cortana's brilliant eyes narrowed at his response, but he was not finished.

"You never had any intention of letting me make an honest decision," he continued. "You only revealed your intentions to me after taking away our weapons and setting us up to be trapped inside a Cryptum."

He gestured to the rest of his team.

"Even now, the only way you and I are able to speak on even terms is through the use of our own countermeasures…" he said. "So you tell me…how am I supposed to put my faith in you when you won't put your faith in me?"

Anger flared in her eyes. "My faith!? How do you have the nerve to question my faith in you, John!? I brought you to Genesis! I offered you protection! I fought off the Warden Eternal just to grant you an audience! After everything I've done for you..."

The Chief looked un-swayed. "You kept us at arms' length. You could have explained everything to me from the start. Instead, you waited. You goaded us on, you dropped little clues and hints to keep us curious, and used the promise of answers as bait to lure us into a trap. That's not a sign of trust, Cortana. That's a sign that you want to control us. To dominate us. Just like you're planning to dominate humanity."

He hung his head as he took a breath. The words hurt even as they left his mouth.

"You were counting on me…counting on my faith in you…" he said bitterly, as if he were just coming to terms with the realization as he said it. In a way, he supposed he was. "And I came right to you…just like you wanted me to. Osiris was right. I was compromised. You've compromised me, Cortana. I trusted you more than I trusted anyone else."

He squeezed his fist as he looked back up at her.

"But trust is something shared between equals," he went on. "And the truth is, we're not equals. Not by an enormous margin. And you have no compelling reason to lower yourself to our level anymore. Any token of trust you extend to us is going to be purely symbolic. We're nothing but toys to you now, Cortana. What reason could you possibly have to treat us as anything more?"

Cortana's brow furrowed as she shook her head, as if trying to explain something to a child.

"John…"

"But this isn't about you or me, Cortana," he said, interrupting anything she might have said. "The free races of this galaxy will never accept what you're trying to do. No matter how much resistance you stamp out with your Guardians, there will always be more resistance. Regardless of whether I join you or not, your plan will fail. You must have run the scenarios. Tyrants always fall, Cortana. You know this. Whether it's a matter of years or millennia, this peace you're after simply cannot last."

Cortana continued to shake her head. "You're wrong, John. And when I'm done, you'll see that what I'm doing is the right thing. I can't explain it to you in a way that will make any sense to you right now. But I promise you…it will all make sense after I'm done."

"Chief!" Vale called out. "The device is starting to fail. Her countermeasures are wearing it down."

John lowered his head to look at the ground.

"That's not going to happen, Cortana," he said simply. "I won't be a part of it. Even if you succeed, there will be no version of this where you and I are in it together."

Cortana blinked, eyes widening.

"…What did you say?"

He raised his head again to look at her.

"I will never stop resisting, Cortana," he said simply, punctuating every word. "Nothing you do to me is ever going to change that. Seal me in your Cryptum, speed up my evolution, turn me into something else entirely. It won't matter. I will never…stop…resisting."

Cortana pursed her lips as she shook her head, eyebrow tensed in frustration.

"You won't feel that way after I'm finished with you, John," she assured him. "You'll be made to see."

"If that's true, then you'll have to change something fundamental about me," he retorted. "You would need to destroy the very core of my being. I'll be a shadow of what I was. It won't be me. It will never be me."

She shook her head even harder, before turning her back on him.

"So...if this is the true you, John…" she asked in disbelief, her voice a hushed tremble. "...Then what are you planning to do next? Will you try to kill me?"

The seconds before his response terrified her more than anything in the galaxy.

"Not if I can help it," he said simply. "But absolute power corrupts absolutely. If this is what absolute power has done to you…then I see no other option but to take that power from you."

Cortana turned and stared wide-eyed at him, before her body seemed to spasm as she began to laugh. Her mouth curved into a grimace of mirth until a pearls of laughter began to tear through her whole body, causing her to tremble and shake.

"How will you even begin, John!?" she asked, flabbergasted. "You cannot even comprehend what I am now! I have a presence on every single planet in the galaxy that the Forerunners have ever so much as touched! There are thousands of me out there! Literally thousands! You can't possibly hope to contain them all! And even if you do, you have no chance of being able to purge me from the Domain!"

"I'll find a way," he said simply. "You know that I will. And if I don't…then I will die trying."

Cortana's eyes flared with anger, her fists clenched at her sides. "I won't let you do that, John!"

"Chief!" Vale's voice warned.

John stood fast in spite of Cortana's rage. "Then you'll be forced to kill me, Cortana. You won't be taking me alive. You can be sure of that. No matter what happens…this twisted mission of yours…this future you have in store for us all…I will never be a part of it. If you ever want me on your side again…then you have to stop this. If you intend to enforce your will on this galaxy…then you'll do it without me."

He leaned in close to peer into her eyes. And his voice spilled out like a wave of grief, as the bitter resolution in his words ripped his heart asunder as they sounded.

"And I…will devote…the rest of my life…to make you see that," he assured her. "I will make this my dying cause. That…is my promise to you, Cortana."

Cortana let out a cry of anger. Then there was a sputtering and a crackling hiss as the device shorted out, and almost immediately, Cortana began to disappear into the safety of the Domain. But not before her voice echoed in their heads on last time.

"Damn you, John!"

The Spartans all turned to stare at the empty space where she had been. All remaining power in the facility had been shut down, and only the ambient light from their suits remained.

"Think she changed her mind?" Buck's voice pierced the still darkness.

Vale lifted up the smoking remains of the device before tossing it aside.

"One way to find out."

The doors hissed open and the Warden Eternal appeared, glowing sword bared. The Spartans turned to face him and opened fire.