Chapter 3

My knees started trembling. My already shaky hands got shakier. My heart rate picked up. I felt a common panic attack coming on. Sensing my discomfort, Jake gently took my hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"I'm here, okay? I know this sucks, but it's okay, because for me, I get to do this with my best friend," he said soothingly. "I promise I'll be here for you no matter what, okay?"

I nodded, and breathed in deeply, staving off tears. Auntie Dot's voice sounded over the comm again, and she directed us towards the door outlined in one of the bunker walls. I noticed that Jake hadn't let go of my hand yet, and despite my panic and distress, a warm fuzzy feeling pooled in my stomach, but I pushed it away and focussed on what was happening.

With a hiss, the door depressurised, and it slid open easily. With voice prompts from Auntie Dot, Jake and I made our way down a long corridor to what seemed to be the personal quarters section of the bunker. She told us the number for our room, and the code to get into it, then she informed us that we were to change into the clothes provided and wait for further instructions.

"Geez," I said as soon as the two beeps signifying she was gone sounded. "It's like we are prisoners or something. Do this, go here, don't do that, wear these clothes. She's almost as bad as my mother."

Jake laughed and ruffled my hair. "Now young Padawan Princess, don't get so feisty just yet. We best do what we are told to... for now at least."

The room Jake and I were supposed to share was medium sized; there were two beds that looked long enough for a giant to sleep on, a simple table with a couple of chairs, and some boring artwork adorned the walls. A small hallway led to a laundry, and a bathroom was opposite that. On the beds were cargo pants and black t shirts for both of us, along with combat boots and very plain looking underwear. Similar clothing was stacked neatly into the drawers next to each bed. A plastic bag was left beside each pile of clothing, seemingly to put our current clothes in. Not happening.

"Well, I'll go into the bathroom to get changed..." I said, suddenly feeling nervous about sharing a room with Jake.

"Oh yeah, of course, I'll get changed out here Sweetheart," he said smirking.

"Knock it off, Sith wannabe," I teased, gathering my clothes and marching into the bathroom. I heard him chuckling as I shut the door and started stripping down. I began to wonder what would be happening back home. I had no idea how much time had passed since I got here, and I wondered if my parents would be worried and be looking for me. Sure they weren't fantastic, but everyone makes mistakes in the end, and as much as they hurt me, I still felt love for them. I came to the realisation that I probably wouldn't ever see them again, and I began tearing up as I got dressed.

When I was finished, I rubbed cool water on my face and willed the redness from crying to go away. I looked at my reflection and couldn't help but notice how badass I looked. The cargo pants fit nicely, the boots felt like they were custom made for my feet. I was wearing a tight black tank top that honestly didn't leave much to the imagination. I looked up at my face, and though my body looked badass, my puffy eyes and long hair made me look like a pathetic damsel in distress. I pulled my long honey coloured hair back into a pony tail, letting my side fringe bounce back over my face. With one final deep breath, I opened the door ready to face whatever I would come across. I felt like some awesome soldier in a music video and the heroic attitude flushed over me. I stepped back into the bed room ready to talk to Jake about what had happened. We were both mature, we could do this.

"BETH DON'T LOOK!" Jake's voice screamed at me. "I'M NOT DRESSED YET!"

I couldn't help but burst out laughing at the sight before me. Jake was standing there with his new shirt somehow tangled around his neck and arm, and his pants were resting undone around his waist. What the hell had taken him so long to only be this far along in getting dressed? I slowly managed to stop laughing and I walked over to him and helped him get untangled, but not before noting how stunning his body was. Come on Beth, stay focussed.

Once we finally got it sorted out, and Jake was fully dressed, we stopped laughing and looked awkwardly at each other. Whoever knew there could be so much tension and awkwardness between people who had been best friends for ages.

"So... I wonder how long it will be before Auntie Dot comes back with the latest order," I joked around. My stomach chose that exact moment to start grumbling like a whale. I looked down at it and sighed. "I would kill for some food right about now though."

"Amen to that, Sweetheart, I'm absolutely starving," Jake agreed, smirking in that handsome way of his. I flipped him off upon hearing that silly nickname yet again, and he chuckled but was rudely interrupted by the double beeps foreshadowing that Auntie Dot was about to speak.

"Beth, and Jake, now that you are fully dressed, you are ready to meet your new team members," Auntie Dot chimed. "If you walk out of your room and turn right, follow the purple line on the wall until you reach the mess hall. Your team will be waiting there for your arrival."

Jake and I became serious again. As awkward as it was being around each other, it was already easy to forget about the pretty serious predicament we had gotten ourselves into. As we walked towards the door, I began to feel anxious again, and I sighed shakily.

"It's okay, Beth," Jake whispered, taking my hand and interlacing our fingers. "We are doing this together."

I smiled tensely back up at him. "Together," I confirmed.

After getting lost and finally finding the mess hall forty-five minutes later...

Walking through the hissing sliding doors of the mess hall, Jake and I received many stares and gapes. It looked like the armour and uniform clad people that lived here were astonished at mine and Jake's presence. As we scanned the room for our new 'team', a group of Spartans stood up from the back corner and nodded in our direction. I squeezed Jake's hand with excitement.

"Jake! ohmygosh, JAKE!" I yelped, causing more attention to be drawn to us. "It's NOBLE Team!"

He began to say something, a smile on his lips, but Carter, the leader of NOBLE stepped in.

"Jake, Beth, nice to finally meet you in person," his strong voice boomed from much higher up. I tilted my head back to stare up into his face.

"In person? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, suddenly feeling a strange chill down my spine.

"Well, let's discuss that over some food," Carter said knowingly. "You've been here a while without anything to eat, so you must be famished."

We agreed, and allowed him to lead us over to the table where the rest of NOBLE Team still stood respectfully, waiting for their Commander. When we got there, he nodded slightly, I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't staring right at him. At his cue, they all sat down almost in unison which startled me, but Jake and I took our seats and politely started eating the burgers provided.

"In answer to your question from before, Beth," Carter started, "Our supervisors have been doing what they do best, and they've been scanning past age earth for anyone suited to the role of filling in NOBLE six and seven. They deemed you and Jake ideal, the fact that you were friends wasn't even discovered until much later, but when they found out, they thought it fitting as it would provide more familiarity when we commenced the time jump to our time."

Taking in Carter's information was overwhelming to say the least. Time jumping? That wasn't a party of the Reach story. Noble seven? That wasn't canon either. I still had so many questions, like what would happen to our families? Seemingly reading my mind, Jake's voice chirped up from beside me.

"But you can't just rip us away from our families and expect them not to freak out and go searching," Jake said, puzzled. "And what happens when they never find us because we are in a whole bloody different time frame?"

"That is where the use of clones come in," Kat, Carter's second started speaking. "We replaced both of you with identical clones. Unfortunately, clones have weak immune systems, so they will end up dying of natural causes."

Completely overwhelmed by this point, I started to tear up. Jake once again was there to grab my hand and hold it tightly. Seeing this, Jorge smiled, but Kat scowled. Someone wasn't used to touchy feely, I noted.

"Anyway, back to the subject at hand," Carter said gruffly. "You two will need to go through serious augmentations to get you up to date so you can fully join NOBLE. These augmentations will take several months to achieve perfectly, and most of which you won't even remember because you'll be heavily sedated. We are all prepared for that so we will get started right away. Auntie Dot will take you to the medical bay."

Feeling like I hadn't learned much, I was suddenly whisked away out the door and down the hallway with Jake. We walked towards the medical bay and he kept a hand on my shoulder to be a reassurance for me. Medics came out to meet us, and suddenly I felt very cornered and vulnerable.

"Jake, I have a bad feeling about this," I said as the medics came towards us. They were fully suited up in green scrubs and full face masks, and quite frankly I didn't want them anywhere near me. Instinctively, I moved towards the closest source of comfort as they got closer, which just so happened to be Jake. I quickly slipped behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face in his back and willing the medics and this stupid mess away. To no avail, however, as the medics finally reached us and grabbed my arm firmly to pull me off.

"No! No please don't take him away from me," I begged, panic rising in my voice. "I only just got him back!"

"Beth, Sweetie, I promise you everything is going to be okay," Jake said, desperate to calm me. He lunged away from the medic and wrapped his strong arms around me, and I melted into his embrace. If there was one thing I was most scared of, it was ending up truly alone. I felt the medic grab my arm again to pull us apart and I turned around and started to try fight him off. I managed to land a few punches, ignoring Jake trying to stop me and hold me back. Unaware to what was happening, the other medic reached into a pack on his leg and pulled out a nasty looking syringe. As I landed another solid punch to the now pissed off medic, I felt a jab in my shoulder and immediately everything started going fuzzy. I saw the medic reach out to grab me, and I started falling backwards, the drugs taking effect.

Jake once again played the hero and caught me as I fell, lowering my body slowly to the ground. I squinted up at him, but there were six of him and every single one of them was spinning. I was vaguely aware of him telling me "It's okay, Sweetheart, everything is okay". Just as I felt the last threads of consciousness breaking apart, I could have sworn I felt his lips on my forehead, but then darkness overtook me and nothing could be certain at all.