Time Frame: A few days before Halo 2: Cairo Station.

Chapter 4 Hidden Ability

Zen woke up and started wondering where he was. Then he remembered that he got teleported into a different dimension and was no longer at his original dimension. He looked at his watch in which he placed on the side of his pillow and it read 5:00 AM. He could hear a faint snoring coming from above which registered as Stahn in his mind. He sat upright slowly rubbing his eyes dazed. Zen was always a morning person that's why he never had trouble with waking up early.

He wanted now to get out of the room and take a shower but he didn't know exactly where the shower was. And so he just sat there for a while thinking things over.

He couldn't believe that humans were being hunted by a civilization called the Covenant. Luckily though this so called Sangheili became allies with the humans after finding out that there so called prophets were lying to them about there so called Great Journey. Zen sat there staring blankly at the wall bored. Then he started imagining, (imagining always kept Zen entertained because he has a very creative imagination) that he was playing his PSP which he left at his house.

As he sat there pretending that he was playing (which in fact looks so stupid) his PSP. His hand started to glow. And the light vaguely traced a shape of PSP in his hand. In moments he felt something land on his hand. He looked at it wide-eyed. There in his hand was a PSP. He stood there motionless for what he taught was minutes before he could comprehend what had happened. Then he remembered what Nira said:

"A Forerunner Symbol is something very important. To have it on your skin, then it must mean you're a Creator."

Her words echoed in his head. Was this what she meant? Was this what it meant to be a Creator? Whatever it meant he only understood one thing. He can create anything out of thin air. But then he wanted to try again to test this theory of his so called power, to know he was just wasn't dreaming. This time he concentrated hard on an electronic accessory for his 'created' PSP, he focused his head on an image of earphones. He tried to flip the image on his head vertically and diagonally, making sure he sees every angle.

Then his hands started glowing again this time the light was shaped into a long line. As the light faded, what were left in his hand were in fact earphones. This time he managed to let out a sigh, in which he didn't know that he was holding in. He suddenly realized an unnerving truth. He could finally help the UNSC in fighting the Covenant with his power. His feeling of dead weight that bothered him subconsciously throughout the ordeal he had yesterday after signing up for the army seem to float away.

Zen now stood up and started stretching. He looked at his watch and it said 5:30 AM. 'Wow, time flies when you're having fun creating things in thin air.' He chuckled at the thought and started doing his morning stretches.

A few moments later, Zen noticed Stahn was now stirring from the top bunk. Stahn sat up right, rubbing his eyes and mumbled "Good morning."

"You're not a morning person are you?" asked Zen.

"Yeah… I hate waking up early." replied Stahn groggily. He jumped down the bed and landing on the ground.

"C'mon its time we get breakfast." said Stahn while grabbing his shoes and lacing them after putting socks.

The two tied there shoes and headed outside. The hallway was still practically empty with a few engineers walking around. There was actually a silence between the two since Stahn wasn't a morning person and Zen enjoyed silence. Arriving at the mess hall, they saw Nira eating with herself at a table. After getting their food, which was basically a military rations, they sat next to her.

"Hey guys." greeted Nira.

"Nothing much, you know just here, making things out of thin air." said Zen in a bored tone.

Stahn who was drinking his water gagged, nearly spilling the cup. Nira just gave Zen a curious look.

"What?" asked Stahn wiping the water that was dripping from his mouth.

"Oh I haven't told you yet?" said Zen with a grin.

"You didn't tell me anything, now please repeat what you just said." asked Stahn with a serious stare at Zen.

"I just found out earlier that I can make things out of thin air." said Zen.

"You truly are a Creator." said Nira smiling.

"Wow." said Stahn, his mouth forming an O.

"I'll show you later." said Zen then he started eating their breakfast with mild chatter. Along their conversation Zen got to know Stahn and Nira better. To summarize what he found out about them here's a list:

Full Name: Stahn Zeban

Age 20

Birthday: June 5 2505

Parents (Died at Reach):

Morgan Zeban and Jenny Zeban

Rank: Private

Reason to join the army:

Wanted to fight the Covenant for what they did to us (humans).

Full Name: Nira 'Evanam

Age: 19 (Human equivalence)

Rank: A SpecOps soldier

Reason to join the army: Joined the humans after knowing the truth behind the Great Journey.

After finishing their breakfast the trio headed back to their quarters and got themselves some clothes and headed for the showers. The shower room was a large room with cubicles at the side. There was a rack at the side with towels neatly piled and a basket at the side. It seemed that the shower room allowed male and female. There were still no people there when they arrived, so Zen had the liberty of which cubicle to choose from. After opening the cubicle Zen placed his clothes at the side and started undressing. When he managed to remove his top he then noticed that the shower here had different buttons and an odd looking valve. There were also some weird looking bottles that used to have labels but seemed to have been peeled off. Not wanting to "wing-it" he took a peek out from the cubicle to find that Stahn was already taking a shower but Nira seemed to have been talking to someone. She finished her conversation and started heading towards the cubicle opposite Zen. Zen took his chance.

"Um… Nira?" Zen asked. The elite stop and looked at him.

"I need some help?"

"Why what's wrong?"

"I don't know how to operate this." The elite smiled. She placed her clothes at her cubicle then she walked into the shower. It was a bit crowded; the shower was only built for one.

"This," she pointed to a green bottle, "I know you humans can use this, your terminology of it is 'Shampoo'. That," she pointed to a yellow bottle, "that you can use for your skin and the white bar on the side is obviously soap." Zen chuckled. "And these are On/Off/Hot/Cold." She said whilst pointing at the appropriate valve and button. Zen nodded.

"That's it." said Nira.

"Thanks." said Zen looking up at her.

Zen found himself staring at her. He could not pull his eyes of her. He studied her face and he noticed she did it in return. He tried to read her feelings, but he hadn't learned yet how Elites expressed their feelings. They were like that, not breaking eye-contact, for a few still moments. Only the sound of the rushing water coming from Stahn's cubicle pierced the silence. It was Zen who snapped out of the trance first, and noticed they were cramped in, there bodies inches from one another. Zen blushed and he cleared his throat. This caught Nira's attention.

"I'm going to bathe now." said Zen with a slight smile. Nira finally managed to snap out of the trance and realized what was happening around her.

"Oh! I'm Sorry!" and she quickly stepped out of the cubicle, obviously embarrassed by the incident. Zen closed the curtain and undressed completely. He placed his clothes' near the towel and turned the shower on to his preferred temperature; mind completely blank. As the water eased his muscles his mind went overdrive.

'What just happened?' He started lathering himself with the soap.

'Was I just staring at her? Were we staring at one another?' He kept lathering himself with the soap.

'No, no Nira is a Sangheili. I mean, she doesn't have any beautiful features.' Zen placed some shampoo on his palm and applied it to his scalp.

'Well except for her eyes.' Zen started massaging his scalp.

'She actually isn't that bad looking, now that I think about it. She has a nice build and her skin; it has such an interesting texture. Her voice is nice, too. It is somewhat musical, yet it is soothing to hear her talk. And for some unknown reason, I find her mandibles quite appealing. She is also very charming. She is always so polite, and she is so easy to talk to.

He paused for a moment.

'So maybe, I was staring. But was she staring back?' He blushed.

He turned on the shower again and let the soap suds drip from him.

'What I am even thinking about! Even if she was, which is highly unlikely, nothing can develop here.'

He shook his head and grabbed his towel and started drying himself off. After thoroughly dried he then took the clothes he brought and worn them and stepped outside. Stahn was waiting for him and behind him stood an elite which wore black armor. It took him a moment to realize it was Nira. Nira bided the two goodbyes saying she had SpecOps business to handle. For the day's activity, Stahn accompanied Zen to the station's shooting range. There he taught him how to use the different types of weapons of the humans and the Covenant. Zen easily learned how to use the weapons to Stahn's surprise. When he was asked if he had prior knowledge on how to use weapons his only answer was 'I got training from video games.'

After the shooting range next was the gym then the armory. Zen wanted to go to the armory, due to the reason that Zen wanted to see different armor design so he can come up with a good design for his 'Creator' armor which he will be using if he is going into battle. After seeing designs he came up with a design with inspirations from the Master Chief's MJOLINIR Armor, Gordon Freeman's HEV Suit (From Half-Life©) and from the elites armor. It came out as a sleek looking design with a helmet, the visor tinted black. It had basically all the Chief's armor features but his allowed him to do extraordinary things without physical augmentation like the Chief.

Stahn was amazed at seeing Zen's power for the first time, even Cortana, the Chief's AI; along with Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keyes. Cortana did some research about Zen's power but came up only with a sentence that mentioned the term 'Creator'. It said that the creators helped the Forerunners build the installations but that was just about it.

At the end of the day Zen's body was aching all over as he lied down on to the bottom bunk of his head his thoughts still pondering on the events that had happen today; specifically the shower incident.

********

Meanwhile on the same train of thought Nira Evanam, was walking down the hall, heading for her quarters. Her mind busy with the things she did today but she couldn't shake the thought about the shower incident. She was having the same argument as Zen earlier.

'Was he really staring at me?' She shook her head.

'No that's impossible, he's a human. He doesn't have any handsome features.'

She opened the door to her quarters and went in.

'Well except for his green eyes.' She started removing her armor and then changing into her night gown.

'Well he is handsome, come to think of it. His nice, kind and I feel very comfortable around him, at ease. His voice is deep yet it's soothing to hear. His muscular and a nice build for such an age. And his neck is somehow appealing to me.' She blushed, a purple shade at the last sentence.

'What 'am I thinking his my friend and will stay as a friend… Well a close relationship can't hurt…'

'Now I'm thinking about 'Close' Relationships! She lied down the bed angry at her own thoughts.

'Am I…Developing feelings…For Him...?

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