Chapter 17: Red Vs. Blue All Over Again
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Halo, Red Vs Blue or Any of their Respective Characters
John-117
The Chief began to come around. He woke up in Blue Base, with his wrists tied behind him. He tried to pull lose, but whoever tied it knew what they were doing. "So, you're awake?" he heard a female voice say. He looked over to see Cortana standing in the corner. He immediately stopped struggling at the sight of her. "It's just you." he said, sighing. "What's going on?" he asked. "How long have I been out?" Cortana walked over to him and sat down. "You've been out for a while now. About a day, I think." she said, sniffling. "You sound like you've been crying." he said. She nodded. "I have been crying." she aid. "Why?" he asked. "What's going on?" She continued sniffling. "The Reds, Blues and 'neutral people' are voting whether or not they should kill you!" she said. "What? Why?" he asked. "Because you attempted to kill Doctor Halsey!" she said, starting to sob. "But she deserved it. She attempted to get me killed."
"I know!" she said. "But they disagreed after they heard her story, the fucking bitch." He nodded. "Who is voting to keep me alive?" he asked. "And everything else?" She pointed at a big piece of paper on the wall. "There's a list. " she said. "Agent Carolina is neutral. She doesn't see you as really important, I guess." He nodded. "Go on." he said. "Lopez was automatically put on the vote to kill you," she said. "as he pretty much hates everyone." He nodded. "Doctor Halsey votes to keep you alive. Since you're the original Spartan. Kind of." she said. "That is bullshit." he said. "Continue." Cortana nodded. "Grif is voting to kill you, only because Sarge told him to." she said. "Washington is voting to kill you. Because you attempted to beat him to death." He sighed. "He only has himself to blame." he said. "Continue." Cortana nodded. "I'm placing my vote on keeping you alive." she said, smiling. "Because, you know, well, that should be a no brainer."
"Yeah..." he said. "That makes perfect sense. Since, we're kind of a thing." she laughed. "Tucker ended up voting to kill you, but he says it was an accident." she said. "He thought the 'Anti-Chief' and 'Pro-Chief' teams were joking about this." He nodded. "So, Tucker's okay?" he asked. She nodded. "He woke up a few hours ago." she said. "Donut has voted to keep you alive. He see's you as a good 'Captain' and a good person." He nodded. "Well, at least someone thinks highly of me." Cortana just giggled and nodded. "Mendez has a strong vote on killing you." she said. "Because you attempted 'murder' on Doctor Halsey." John sighed in anger. "I already stated the obvious." he said. "The bitch tried to get me killed. She deserved her fate." Cortana nodded. "I know. She doesn't deserve to live." she said. "But I need to talk to her, before we attempt to vote for or against her execution."
"What would you possibly need to know from her?" he asked. "I need to know who I am, John." she said. "I know who you are." he said. "You're my girlfriend. Person I'm seeing. Possible wife?" She blushed as she laughed. "Although I'm flattered to be called your girlfriend, as I've always wanted to be with you," she said. "there's more to it than that." John was confused now. "What more is there?" he asked. "I need to know why I can't access all of my memories." she said. "And why I have memories that aren't mine." He sighed. "Obviously, I'm not the one who could tell you that." She laughed. "Well, no duh! Let's get back to the subject." she said. "Doc has voted to keep you alive, on the note that he's a conscientious objector." He was confused. "A what?" he asked. "He's a pacifist." she said. "He's a thing that babies suck on?" Donut asked, walking into the base. "No, he opposes war on all grounds." Cortana said. "Right." Doc said, walking in behind Donut. "She nailed that."
"Anyway, back on topic. Caboose was automatically made neutral with Agent Carolina." Cortana said. "Church did this, as he didn't want to be pummeled by so many questions." John sighed. "Typical Church." he said. Cortana nodded. "Tex has voted to keep you alive, as she sees you as a badass like she is." she said. "Simmons has voted to kill you. Again, because Sarge told him to." John shook his head in anger. "Sarge can't make them do that. It's just wrong." he said. "I know." Cortana said. "For whatever reason, Church has voted against your life." He shook his head. "Church won't get a thank you for that." he said. "And as weird and fucked up as it sounds, Sarge is voting on keeping you alive." John sat straight up. "What the fuck?!" he asked. "So, he votes on keeping me alive, but forces Grif and Simmons to vote opposite? What the hell?!" Cortana nodded. "So, those are the people that are with and against me?" Donut cleared his throat. "Don't forget the neutral team."
"Whatever." the Chief said. He looked up at the poster that labeled the new teams and members. He read it to himself. Pro-Chief: Doctor Halsey, Cortana, Donut, Doc, Tex, Sarge. Anti-Chief: Lopez, Grif, Washington, Tucker, Mendez, Simmons, Church. Neutral: Carolina, Caboose. He sighed. "The votes to keep me alive are outnumbered by one." he said. "Face it, Cortana. I'm as good as dead." She sighed. "Maybe. But I convinced the opposing forces to give you one last hearing." she said. "To plead for you're innocence." He laughed. "I won't be pleading." he said. "What will you be doing then?" she asked. "You'll see." Donut walked over to them. "Hey guys." he said grimly. "It's time." Cortana nodded. "Okay." she said, untying the Chief. He rubbed his hands. "Don't try anything funny." she said. "It'll be the death of you." He nodded. "Noted." he said, as they led him outside. They led him to the river, where the opposing team was waiting. "Don't try anything funny," Mendez said coming up to them. "We will kill you." He nodded.
"Well?" Mendez asked. "Your last words?" The Chief shook his head. "If they came to hear me plead," he said. "they will be sorely disappointed. I'm going to say that we don't have time for this bullshit." Mendez grunted. "Care to elaborate, dirtbag?" he asked. "You're asking me what I mean?" he asked. "You guys are idiots." Mendez pistol-whipped the Chief in the arm. "Fucking elaborate than!" he said. He turned to Mendez. "You want me to elaborate?" he asked. "You people should already know!" Donut walked up to the Chief. "We should know what, exactly?" he asked. "That the galaxy is at stake!" the Chief said. "Don't you understand? Noble Six is plotting something! You people don't have time for this!" Sarge walked up to the Chief. "Good golly Miss. Molly, he's right!" he said. "When I was on that ship, Noble Six told me that he played both sides of the field and that the Gravemind brought him back to life as an ambassador of sorts!"
"Fuck it, he's right." Church said, as he jumped off a rock across the river. "I'm switching sides." Mendez started firing his Pistol at Church. "What the hell?!" Church and the Chief said at the same time. "You can't switch sides!" Mendez said as he reloaded. "You decided to vote to kill him!" Mendez continued firing at Church. "And now I'm deciding to change my vote!" Church said, as he fired his Sniper Rifle at Mendez. Direct miss. "We don't have time for this shit!" Mendez continued firing at Church. "Watch who you're firing at!" he said. "I am your leader!" Tucker jumped off the rock that the Anti-Chief's were standing on. "Yeah?" he asked, taking out his Energy Sword. "Who the fuck voted you leader?!" The Pro-Chiefs and the Anti-Chiefs starting pointing their weapons at each other.
All of a sudden, someone who wasn't on a team fired their Battle Rifle. All of the former Reds and Blues turned to look at Carolina, the barrel of her Battle Rifle smoking. "Enough! Now that I have everyone's attention." Carolina said, reloading her Rifle. "You people are wasting your time. I don't see a point in doing this. You are all stupid and I think the Chief had his reasons for attacking Doctor Halsey." Mendez fired and almost shot Carolina, but she was gone before the bullet could even touch her. "The Chief betrayed the UNSC!" Mendez said. "He attempted to kill Doctor Catherine Halsey, a UNSC doctor!" The Chief was getting angry. "Who attempted to kill him!" Cortana yelled. "Everybody, just shut the fuck up!" John screamed as loud as he could. "Calm down, John!" Cortana said. "What's your problem?" John looked at everyone, not caring about how what he was about to say would affect them.
"You people are my problem! You are all just one small piece of the puzzle that annoys me on a daily basis! I've been nearly infected by the Flood, I dragged Grif's body, Sarge's body, Church's body, Donut's body, Mendez's body, and Washington's body across a barren wasteland and I don't even get a word of thank you in edge wise! I got shot in the back by the doctor that was the only mother I've ever known!" he sreamed, as everyone had gone silent at this point. "First off," he said, as he turned to Doctor Halsey. "You attempted to get me killed! What the hell is wrong with you?! What the hell happened to your humanity? Have you gone insane?!" She just stared at him. "John, I-" she started, but his temper flared even more. "Shut up! Just everybody keep their comments to themselves!" he said. He turned to look at Donut. "What the hell are you?" he asked. "Are you a homo? Are you straight? What's with the pink armor, you girly son of a bitch?!"
"It's-" Donut started to respond, but the Chief was faster. "Shut the hell up! Did you not hear me before?!" he said. He turned to face Doc. "How are you even a medic? You know nothing about medicine! How did Donut even survive being shot in the stomach? Go back to school and get that degree in medicalogy or whatever it is!" Doc just sighed and nodded, not having anything to say. John turned to look at Tex. "I, uh, I'll come back to you." he said, as she just laughed. He turned to look at Sarge. "Sarge, the rag-tag dick leader of 'Red Team'." he said. "What the fuck is wrong with you Sarge? What made you think you can force most of your team to vote against my life and then you just vote to keep me alive? What has gotten into you?!" Sarge just looked down at his feet. He turned to Lopez. "Lopez. Learn some fucking English!" he said. "The end." As usual, Lopez said something that no one understood.
"Grif, you are a fucking idiot and a slob." he said, looking at the Orange Spartan. "You are lazy, you don't follow orders and I can't fucking stand it!" Grif let out a grumble. "Fuck you too, Chief." he hissed. "Agent Washington!" he said, turning to the Black and Orange Spartan. "You were a good soldier at first!" he said. "But then you just had to go and fuck everything up! If it weren't for you, Sarge would still have his legs!" He turned to look at Tucker. "Cortana was right about you and so was Church." he said. "You are a fucking perv! You don't respect women at all! Your always talking about getting in bed with two or more ladies!" He turned to look at Mendez. "CPO Mendez, no one other than you could make a better trainer!" he said. "But have your years in military service blinded you sir?! Doctor Halsey is a traitor! She tried to kill me!"
Mendez sighed. "Maybe." he said. "Maybe we overlooked it." The Chief scoffed. He turned to look at Church. "You are an AI encased in a robot body, Private Church." he said. "When we were in Antarctica, you refused to go into the base with us. You are a fucking robot! You can't feel the cold! You just made a fucking excuse! And I bought it!" He turned to look at everyone. "You guys are wasting time voting whether or not I should be killed." he said. "Maybe I should die. But now isn't the time. We have to kill Noble Six, before he helps the Gravemind raise an army! And he's probably already done it!" Mendez sighed. "He's right." he said. "Now is not the time. We have to-" Just then they were interrupted by screaming. "Oh god, oh god, ohhhhh goooood!" someone screamed. "What the fuck," Church said. "was that?!" Then they heard the explosions. The Chief lost his anger and looked to the source of sounds. He saw a Spartan in Light Brown Armor running towards them. "Run away! I thought I could contain him! The end is extremely nigh!" he screamed.
The Chief ignored the fact that this could be the last thing he would ever do. He grabbed Noble Six by the throat as he ran into his grasp. "Chief!" Mendez said. "Don't make my men and I kill you!" The Chief turned to look at him. "Kill me if you want." he said. "I'm just doing my job." He turned back to Noble Six. "Talk. Tell us why you are here!" Noble Six grabbed the Chief's hands. "Now isn't the time! They're headed this way!" he said. "Tartarus and the M-" The Chief tightened his grasp on Noble Six's throat and dropped him. "You are useless." he said, turning to Mendez. "Still voting to kill me?" he asked. Mendez pointed his Pistol at the Chief's visor. The Chief awaited the shot. "No." he said, as he lowered his Pistol. "If you can prove yourself, we will drop the charges of attempted murder." Attempted murder? What the hell... She attempted to get me killed! "You have my word, sir." he said. "Make one wrong move and we will kill you. Do we understand each other, Chief?" Mendez asked. He nodded.
"Uh, Mendez?" Cortana asked. "What's that?" John looked in the direction that Mendez and Cortana were looking in. He saw the hybrid of a Elite and Brute coming up the rise from Red Base. "You had to bring that thing here?!" Donut said. "It's not a thing! His name is Tartarus!" Noble Six said. "How would you know that?" the Chief asked. "Because I worked with him," he said. "Before they turned on me!" The Chief looked at him. "Before who turned on you?" Washington asked. "Tartarus and-" Noble Six was speaking in a surprising panicked voice. "Okay, calm down." John said. "Mendez get me and this guy a weapon. We'll continue this later." John was thrown a SMG, which may be ineffective in this state. He'd just have to see. "Well, where's his friend?" John asked, pointing his SMG at the horizon. "He should have been here by now." Noble Six said, getting up as he was thrown a Pistol.
John started walking forward and he signaled Tucker to follow him. "The rest of you keep Tartarus busy." he said. "Tucker and I are going to look for his little buddy." Tucker cleared his throat. "Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow." he said. The Chief just sighed in frusteration. "Alright, you heard the man!" Sarge said. "Let's lock an' load!" The Chief and Tucker broke into a light jog, as they heard the others open fire on Tartarus. "Who do you think Tartarus is hanging out with?" Tucker asked. John just grunted. "I have no idea. But he's no friend of mine!" he said. They walked over to Red Base and took cover by the wall. "Ok." Tucker said, getting out his Energy Sword. "On your mark!" John nodded as he put a fresh clip into his gun. After a few seconds, he spoke. "Mark!" he said. The Chief and Tucker rushed from their hiding spot, to face the threat. As soon as they saw the Spartan, Tucker freaked the hell out.
"Oh, shit! Gotta go!" he said, taking off in the direction they came in. "Welcome to the neighborhood! See you later!" The Chief turned around, to watch Tucker run like hell back to base. "Hey!" he called. "Where are you going, Tucker?" He turned back to the White-Armored Spartan. "Sorry about him." he replied. "I guess he doesn't like meeting new people. What's your name soldier?" The Spartan let out a growl that the Chief couldn't understand. "Uh, say again?" he asked. The Spartan ignored the Chief and attempted to hit him with the blade on the Bruteshot he was using. The Chief was faster and grabbed the butt of the weapon and forced it back towards the Spartan. "Are you out of your mind?!" he said, kicking him in the stomach. This caused the Spartan to stumble and the Chief had enough time to shoot the Spartan in the stomach. The Spartan let out an agonizing growl of pain, as the Chief saw blood coming from the rubber-like layer of armor. Unfortunately, the blood was a pale-greenish color.
"Oh, Christ." the Chief said. "He's infected!" He continued to fight against this anonymous Spartan. The Spartan lunged at the Chief once again, but he dodged at the last second, causing the Bruteshot's blade to get lodged into the wall of Red Base. The Chief fired into the Spartan's side, which temporarly incapacitated him. The Spartan fell to his knees and just stood there. The Chief took this oppurtunity to head back in the direction he and Tucker had come in. As he ran, he reloaded the SMG. He eventually got back to where the Reds and Blues were at, trying to subdue Tartarus. "What's down there, Chief?" Carolina asked. "What, Tucker didn't say anything?" he asked. She shook her head. "Tucker's over there, not doing anything." she said, pointing. The Chief looked over to Tucker, to see him rocking back in forth on the ground, holding his knees. "Jesus Christ." he said, as he helped subdue Tartarus. "So, I'll say it again." Carolina said. "What did you find?" The Chief sighed. "It was just another infected Spartan." he said. "Another?" Church asked. "Well, that's original."
"Just be ready when he, her or it gets up here." the Chief said. "What's it look like?" Sarge asked. "It's primary armor plates are White. Secondary are Brown." he said. "Oh and he wears a E.V.A. Helmet." Washington stopped firing his Battle Rifle and looked at the Chief. "Did you say an 'E.V.A. Helmet'?" he asked. "Yeah." the Chief said. "Why?" Washington just continued to stare at the Chief. "Fuck..." he said, running off towards Red Base. He stopped at the rise and started sprinting back. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" he shouted as he ran back to the group. "What's going on?" the Chief asked, as he crouched next to Washington as he caught his breath. "That's not any regular Spartan, as you called him! That's the-" Washington was speaking, but Carolina interrupted him as the Spartan came up the rise. "You revived the Meta?!" she screamed at Noble Six. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" All of the Reds and Blue open fired on the revived Meta, but it did no good. The Meta just kept coming. "How the fuck can you kill it?!" Church said, as he fired at the Meta with the Sniper Rifle.
"You can't!" Noble Six said. "He's exactly like me! He'll just heal, like I do." The Chief frowned. He walked over to Noble Six. "Hey, Six?" he asked. Noble Six had stopped firing his Magnum and looked at the Chief. "Yeah?" The Chief lowered his weapon. "We'll help you out with this, but afterwards, you owe us a explanation!" Noble Six nodded. "You'll get an explanation." he said. "Just not right now." All of a sudden, a shot was fired in between them. Both of them looked to the source of the sound, to see Sarge holding a Pistol. "We would appreciate it if you helped out, boys!" he said, switching to his Shotgun and reloading. "Donut!" the Chief said, as he ran over to the "not-so-manly" Spartan. Donut turned to look at the Chief. "What do ya need, Chief?" he asked. "Do what you do best, kid." he said, in a simple tone. Donut nodded, seeming to understand. "Good luck, kid!" the Chief said, as Donut ran towards Tartarus. The Chief honestly thought that he would have gotten killed. However, he would was proven wrong. Donut threw two Plasma Grenades that stuck to Tartarus. "Hell yeah!" Donut said. "Six points you dirty whore!"
Tartarus freaked out as Donut dove to cover and the grenades exploded. Tartarus stumbled and fell on one knee. The Chief took this oppurtunity to start shooting Tartarus. He started to bleed bluish-purplish blood as he was shot. The Chief ran up to the Meta, as Tartarus made a slow recovery. He grabbed the Bruteshot the Meta was holding, once he got to him. The two faught over the Bruteshot for what seemed like ages. Finally, he Chief won the fight by kicking the Meta in the stomach as the struggle continued. "You know, I thought you would have predicted that!" the Chief said. The Meta just let out a growl, as John gained the upperhand. He ripped the Bruteshot from the Meta's hands and used the blade to slash through the Meta's lower stomach. The Meta let out an extremely pained growl, as he fell over. John took the time to run back to Tartarus, who had nearly recovered. As he reached Tartarus, using all of his sheer strength, John lodged the Bruteshot as deep into Tartarus' back as he could.
Tartarus let out a long, loud, pained growl as he attempted to remove the foreign object lodged in his back. He started thrashing towards the Master Chief, but he was too clumsy with the blade in his back. All of a sudden, the Chief saw small explosions of purple blood along Tartarus' torso. The Chief looked behind him, to see Noble Six unloading his magazine into Tartarus' chest. "Just trying to help!" he said. "As long as you're helping, I don't care what you do." the Chief said. The Meta had recovered from the Chief's attack and had healed. He ran over to Tartarus and not gently pulled the Bruteshot from his back. Tartarus howled in pain as purple blood gushed from his wound. After he recovered a bit, he turned around and started to fight with the Meta. "Alright, thanks to what you did, they're distracted!" Noble Six replied, running over to him, holstering his weapon. "So it seems." the Chief said, turning to Noble Six and calmly pointing his SMG at him. "Okay, tell us what you want." he said. "I'll try not to shoot first. Now talk!"
Noble Six cleared his throat. "I'm sick of the Gravemind's hold on me." he said. "I have no idea why we are listening to you," Tucker said, finally recovering from his little mental breakdown and walking over to them. "since you nearly killed me, you know. But I'll bite. What do you expect us to do? Create a petition voting for the Gravemind to leave you alone?" Noble Six let out a short, shallow laugh. "No," he said. "you're gonna help me kill it!" Master Chief sighed. "How do you even kill a Gravemind?" he asked. "Uh, brainfart?" Church said, as the rest of the group walked up to them. "The best thing I can think about is using one of those Halo's you came across..." Mendez replied. The Master Chief stood up a little straighter, irritated at the mention of one of those Forerunner war machines. Even Cortana grimaced and whimpered at the mention of it. "What did I do?" Mendez asked in a confused tone. "Nevermind what you did. What the hell did you just suggest?!" the Chief said, raising his voice a bit. "I said we could try a Halo, what's so bad-" he started trying to explain himself, but he never got the chance.
"The thing that is so bad about one of those things," the Chief shouted, turning to face the CPO. "Is that it's more than Halo! On the ground, it looks like a lush, green landscape for miles and miles. The problem, is that underneath the surface, are dozens upon millions of dormant Flood specimens. And even if we activated Halo, it would destroy all sentient life in a pretty big radius!" Mendez looked surprised and confused. "So, that rules-" The Chief interrupted. "Yes, that fucking rules it out!" he shouted. "Okay, okay." Washington said. "If the Halo idea is ruled out, I have an idea." he said. They all looked at Washington. "There is, uh, a catch. Isn't there?" Tucker asked. "Yes, dumbass." Washington said. "There is a catch. There is always a catch." The Chief sighed. "Okay, Washington. Let's hear the catch." he said. "It, uh, involves, uh..." he kept stuttering. "Just say it!" Tex and Carolina shouted at the same time. "Hey, like mother like daughter, huh?" Tucker asked Church. Church laughed a little. "Yeah, defininetly." he said. "The catch, is that it involves Project Freelancer." Washington finally said.
Tucker immediately took off his helmet and threw both it and his DMR to the ground. "That's it!" he said. "I'm quitting the army!" Cortana quickly walked up to him and whispered something to him. "Oh, ok. I'm in!" he said. "What did you say to him?" Washington asked. "Doesn't matter." she said, walking back to John's side. "What did you say?" he whispered. "I told him I'd makeout with him." she whispered back. The Chief was stunned. "You didn't actually mean it did you?" he whispered. She started laughing. "Him? Are you kidding? No way!" she whispered. "Okay, so what's the plan Washington?" Tucker asked. "If we are going to fight the Gravemind, the Meta and possibly Tartarus, we would need some old Freelancer equipment." Tucker put his helmet back on. "Ok, that I actually don't mind." he said. "But where would we find the equipment?" Washington sighed. "There are a few secret outposts left in the galaxy." Washington said. "However, to get access into each facility, you need the Director's password."
"Try Allison." Church said, in a 'Captain Obvious' tone. "Why Allison?" Washington asked. "I was based off of Allison." Tex admitted. "Allison, was the Director's lover. Problem is, she died. She was sort of the point of Project Freelancer. I see it as a point to revive her." Washington shrugged. "Makes sense. But we have to move, those two won't fight forever." he said. "Also, if we want to kill a Gravemind, I think I know a guy who could deliver information." Mendez said. "Who?" John asked. "Don't worry about it." Mendez shot back. "I still don't trust you." John nodded, stepping forward. "When all of this is said and done, we need a base camp." he said. "This is a base camp. I think we are fine." Caboose replied. The Chief sighed. "Look, Meta and Tararus are fighting here. And for all we could know, the Flood could be on the way here now!" he said. "Then where do you recommend?" Grif asked. "There's a place, if we could clear it out, I believe it would make a good base." John said. "Chief, oh God please don't say it." The Chief smiled. "People, pack your bags. Your going home." he said. "We're going to Blood Gulch." Grif sighed. "Nooo!" he yelled.
A/N: Full apology for not updating in a while. I've had a lot of homework lately. So, I can't promise that I am able to update regularly anymore. I will keep updating though, don't worry. So, the Reds and Blues have been shipped out! This is pretty much the final act of the story! And if I hadn't already told you, there is a sequel planned for this fanfiction! I can't tell you the plot or anything like that, but I may give some details eventually. So, until the next chapter and sorry for making you guys wait, so long!
