OK, I'm going to be honest with you guys, yes I had given up on this story. I don't know why, I guess I just lost interest. I started writing Hyrule Park and I just couldn't think of anything for this fic. But, you need to finish what you start. Plus, Midnight-Apple Blossom reminded me that there are at least a few people that want to see this fic finished. So this one's for you, MAB. I do not own the Legend of Zelda or Halo.

CHAPTER 9: KEYES

Fire Team Onicron was currently huddled behind a pile of large rocks overlooking the Truth and Reconcilliation. "I recieved a transmition from Keyes not long ago. He said that he had found a chip containing information on Halo. Enough to give us an idea on how to destroy it. The signal came from inside the Truth and Reconcilliation. But he told me that the ship had been taken over by the Flood. So we need to be extra cautious." Navi said. "So do we have a plan to get in there? I don't imagine that too many of us want to try going through the tractor beam again." Link said, looking for an alternative way in.

"I have a way." V.A. said. "I've personally invented an item that we can use to infiltrate the ship, I like to call it the Malon Cannon. If used properly, it should make a good, Malon sized hole in the hull of the ship." V.A. said. But after receiving a hard glare from Link, he decided to quikly go to plan B. "All right, I have another plan. We walk towards the tractor beam in a single file line." V.A. said.

"Won't they just mow us down?" Mikau asked. "Aah, but that's the beauty of single file. If we line up in order from least important to most important, Malon being in front and me in the back, the Flood will have to shoot the person in front to get the person in the back." V.A. explained. "Shouldn't we put Link in the back since he's the best fighter out of all of us?" Auru asked. "We'll put Link in front of me. I'll stay in back and survey the mission." V.A. said. "And how exactly can you survey the mission if you're in the back?" Zelda asked. "Simple, if Link dies, then I will know that everything is going wrong. And I will immediately abort the mission." V.A. said.

"Or, we could do this." Ashei said. With that, she took a cookie out of her back pocket. "Look what I have, Malon." Ashei said, teasingly waving the cookie in front of Malon's face. Malon's eyes followed every motion. "Go get it, yeah!" Ashei yelled, hurling the cookie out into the clearing. Malon squeeled in joy and ran off after the cookie. At that moment, a small group of Flood came down through the tractor beam. The rest of the team (except V.A., who wanted to see if the Flood would torture Malon before they ate her) charged out of hiding to do battle with the Flood.

-insert hardcore battle scene here-

Malon happily nibbled on her cookie, blissfully unaware of the chaos that had subsided around her. "Way to take the fun out of everything, corporal." V.A. said to Ashei. "Sorry, sir." Ashei said. "Save it, Ashei." V.A. said. "You want a bite of my cookie?" Malon offered. "Shut up Malon, I can't even threaten your life for being a total jackass... jackass." V.A. said. "How about this, I'll let you go in first. Shooting things always seems to help you." Link offered.

"All right, but I'm taking Ashei, Malon and Tetra with me." V.A. said. "Fair enough. Now get up there." Link said. "Come on maggots." V.A. said, stepping into the beam with Malon, Ashei and Tetra following him.

When they were inside, they could see the damage that the Flood had done. Dead Covenant bodies were strewn all over the ship. And there also appeared to be some sort of fungal parasite growing on parts of the ship. "I like what they've done with the place." Malon said. "Looks like the Flood were looking for something." Tetra said. "We should scout this area out. Malon, get onto that walkway and tell me if you can see anything." V.A. said, pointing to a walkway above them. "Yes, sir." Malon said, turning to go through one of the doors. "Ashei, get me a sniper rifle." V.A. said once Malon was too far away to hear him.

-meanwhile, outside-

"OK, so let's go over this again. I've got twenty rupees on an hour." Link said. "I have twenty on thirty minutes." Mikau said. "I have fifty rupees on an hour and a half." Auru said. "And I'll put fifty on ten minutes." Zelda said as Link scribbled down their bets. "Are you guys betting on if they're all going to die in there?" Navi asked. "We're not betting on if, we're betting on when." Link said. "I want a piece of that, put fifty rupees on forty minutes." Navi said.

-meanwhile, inside the Truth of Reconcilliation-

Malon had reached the walkway, and was looking out into the ship for any sign of Captain Keyes. At that moment, a bullet whizzed by her head. She jumped to the side, dodging another bullet. On the ground, V.A., Ashei and Tetra were pointing sniper rifles at Malon. Tetra fired at Malon, missing her. "Tetra, you're going out of turn." V.A. said. "But it was my turn." Tetra said. "No, it goes you, then me, then Ashei, then back to me, then me, me, you, me, Ashei, me, me, me, Ashei, me, me, you, me, then me again. It makes perfect sense." V.A. said. "But doesn't that mean that you go twice as much as us? Or ten times as much, yeah?" Ashei asked. "Hey Malon, move back and forth like one of those ducks at the fair!" V.A. yelled at Malon.

Malon ducked as V.A. shot at her again. "No, don't duck you ninny! That makes you hard to hit!" V.A. yelled. "Wait, wasn't that my turn?" Tetra asked. "No, this is the lightning round." V.A. said. "Who's in the lightning round?" Ashei asked. "Me." V.A. said, taking another shot.

At that moment, a voice crackled over the com-link. "C...Cortana... wh-what are you doing here?" the voice asked. "Keyes, is that you?" V.A. asked through the link. "You need to get out of here. The Flood... they're here... they're looking for something." Keyes said, he sounded extremely weak and getting worse. "Sir, I've traced the call. It's coming from over there, yeah." Ashei said, pointing at a door across the walkway from Malon. "All right. Malon, we're going to have to put our little game on hold." V.A. said.

V.A., Tetra and Ashei joined Malon on the walkway and approached the door, guns drawn. "Malon, get in there and scout it out." V.A. ordered. Malon entered the door cautiously. She looked around and motioned to the others that it was OK. But when V.A. entered he felt a sharp pain in the side he head. He fell to the ground with the sound of yelling and gunfire around him.

Slowly, V.A.'s vision returned to him. He managed to push himself onto his knees and shook his head. He looked around hazily. Everything was a strange shade of blueish gray and seemed to be glowing. "What the... what happened?" he asked himself, getting onto his feet. "You're dead." a voice from behind him said. V.A. turned around to see a very tall man in green armor standing behind him. "Hey, aren't you that guy we ran over?" V.A. asked. "Yes." the man said, though V.A. couldn't see his face through his helmet, he could pick up a hint of anger in his voice.

"People call me Master Chief." Master Chief said. "Well, what was that thing about me being dead?" V.A. asked. "You were shot in the head." Master Chief said. "So, am I in the afterlife or something?" V.A. asked. "I'm afraid not, it looks like your soul is still tied to the world of the living." Master Chief said. "So what do I have to do to get into the afterlife?" V.A. asked. "Well... there's a twenty dollar entrance fee. So cough it up." Master Chief said, holding his hand out. "What in the name of Master Vaati is a dollar?" V.A. asked. "Well then you must not have twenty. That's not good." Master Chief said.

"Damn it. I always thought that I would die as the all powerfull wizard Overlord of Hyrule. I would rule over Hyrule for decades with my wife Velaria, the beautifull shadow priestess. Until we were both betrayed and killed by our son, Girion, the evil death knight. And we would both look down on him from the afterlife with smiles on our faces as we watched him lead the dark armys of Hyrule on a mission to bring the entire world under his rule. That was my dream since I was a little boy growing up in the Picori Forest." V.A. said sadly.

"Wait, you actually wanted to be betrayed and killed by your own son?" Master Chief asked. "Of course, every great being of evil needs to be betrayed and killed by the person they trust the most. Master Vaati has even told me that when I betray and kill him, he wants me to hit him with my most powerfull lightning spell. Then look him in the eye, say a really zippy one-liner, and then drive a knife through his heart. I was thinking about saying something like 'I hope you have your wallet, because the rent in Hell is payed in advance'. But lately I've been thinking that that's a little long. But I don't want to say something too short either." V.A. said.

"Hey, look what's happening." Master Chief said. V.A. looked where he was pointing to see Ashei, Malon and Tetra huddled around his body. "Look at that, my men are trying to revive me. This is so emotional, where's my hanky?" V.A. said, getting tears in his eyes. At that moment, V.A. began to become hazy and harder to see. "What the... it must be working. Goodbye Master Chief, I'll be sure to remember you." V.A. said, as his spirit dissapeared.

V.A. coughed and opened his eyes to see his team members leening over him. "Welcome back, sir." Tetra said. "What happened?" V.A. asked, sitting up. "You were shot in the head. We were able to revive you with CPR, yeah." Ashei said. "You revived me Ashei? Well I'm going to see to it that you're put up for a medal." V.A. said. "Actually sir, it was Malon that revived you, yeah." Ashei said. "Malon?" V.A. asked. "Yup, you're welcome sir." Malon said. "Why the hell would you use CPR if I had been shot in the head?" V.A. asked angrily. "Well it makes sense, one time when Niko had his left kidney impaled by a crazed Rito's spear all I did was rub aloe on his neck and he was just fine the next morning." Tetra said.

Before he could scold Malon any further, Keyes' voice came over the com-link again. "Why are you all still here? Get out... while there's still time." Keyes said weakly. "Right, let's keep going." V.A. said, getting onto his feet. "You can't go anywhere without this, sir." Ashei said, handing V.A. his shotgun. The four went through the corridors that had been covered in the Flood parasite until they reached what appeared to be the ship's bridge. Hanging in the center was a large, disgusting cacoon like object. "This is where Keyes' signal was originating from, yeah." Ashei said. "OK, spread and search." V.A. said.

The four of them disperced and searched the room, searching for any sign of the captain. Malon decided to check out the cacoon (she thought that it was a giant ball of cookie dough). But she found a large lump in one side of it. Upon further inspection, she came to the conclution that there was a man trapped inside. "You're not looking too great, captain." Malon said, realizing that it was captain Keyes. "Hello, captain. Captain! Hellooooo, caaaptaaaaiin. Captain. Captain? CAPTAIN!!!" Malon yelled. With that, she delivered a punch to Keyes' face. Her fist went through his face and Malon stood there, dumbfounded. "Uh oh." Malon said.

She slowly pulled her hand out of Keyes' head, she had a chip of some sort in her hand. "Oh, well... I'll just take this and be on my way." Malon said slowly. Malon walked away, still in a bit of shock. "Did you find anything?" V.A. asked. "Oh yeah, Keyes is dead. But uuh, I got this." Malon said, holding up the chip. "Great, but where's Keyes' body?" Tetra asked. "That's not important, we'd better just get out of here." Malon said, pushing the other's out.

END OF CHAPTER: 9

There's the ninth chapter. I've forgotten how fun it is to write this fic. Well, this means that there is only one chapter left in this fic. I hope you look foreward to it.