Well, here's...something. Not really sure where it came from, but it's here. This Part was inspired by Zager & Evans' "In the year 2525." It's a pretty good song if you listen to the words and get the moral of the thing. You might want to go listen to it before you read this(Don't worry, no bad words or anything like that). Anyway, I hope you like it.

The Way it Ends.

Inspired by "In the year 2525" by Zager & Evans

"Chief?" Cortana's voice carried to him faintly, distantly. "Chief, please. You made a promise remember? I need you."

"Wh-" he choked, nutrient fluid spilling from his mouth and pooling at the bottom of his helmet.

"Stay still," Cortana told him. "It's…been a long time. I didn't think you would make it. If you can, try to sit up."

He tried, but couldn't. He merely grunted.

"It's okay Chief. Just rest for a while."

After half an hour, he managed to cough out, "How long?"

Cortana, who had been gazing absentmindedly at the floor, looked up. "I…I…I don't know…" He voice was full of fear. Even the Spartan, who wasn't the best people person, could pick up on it. She sounded scared, even more so than when he had rescued her from the Gravemind. The fact that she was terrified scared him in turn. He willed his body to cooperate. He peeled his back off of the bunk in the cryotube. A blinding, burning pain shot up his back, but he ignored it. He pushed off, a searing pain shooting up his legs and arms as he used them for the first time in a long time, but still he ignored it. It wasn't anything compared to Covenant plasma wounds. He floated over to Cortana's pedestal. For the first time he saw her. He was shocked for a moment. She looked… different.

Her hair was still the same cut, only longer and it was now a dark brown color. Her skin was no longer blue. It was…flesh colored. In a nutshell, she looked human. Something had happened to her, but he didn't care. He pulled her chip from the holopad, and inserted her into his head.

"Go to the hangar, Chief," She told him, surprised that he hadn't mentioned anything about her appearance.

He obeyed. For a minute he pulled himself through the wreck of the Dawn, muscles exerting their power for the first time in many years. Eventually, he reached the aft portion of the hangar of the crippled frigate. He stared out into empty space.

"What did you want me to see?" he asked.

"Just wait. You'll see," Cortana told him in a low voice. And wait he did for a full two minutes as the frigate spun serenely through space. Eventually, a planet drifted into view.

Massive craters scarred its surface. Its surface was broken and grey with massive fires burning along its surface. It was completely and utterly devoid of life. Around it, a moon was floating, or parts of a moon anyway. It had shattered into millions of fragments. As the planet rotated underneath them, a massive crater came into view. It was easily a thousand kilometers across, a massive depression tens of kilometers deep. The Chief couldn't even fathom the power of the weapon that had excavated trillions of tons of soil.

"Where are we?" his clam voice drifted over the comm.

"Chief, don't you recognize it?" Cortana asked, her voice choked with grief. She waited for a response. When none was forth coming, she said:

"It's Earth."

Bet you didn't see that coming... A few, for lack of a better term, "easter eggs" in here. If anyone can find some, PM me. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me what you thought of this. There's a moral here, I guarantee it. Till next time, good night and good luck.