In Infinitum

Chapter 27

Tom and Lucy

SSV-Normandy SR2, En route to Sol System. 1800 Hours.
The Normandy along with what was left of the Arcturus Defense, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh fleets speared through FTL towards the Sol Relay where Operation: EAGLE would begin. Operation: EAGLE had been created by Admiral Hector Terrence, Doctor Catherine Halsey and Special Operations Chief Franklin Mendez, It was daring and brave. But it was also classified as a near suicide mission since they only had roughly a few dozen ships to provide cover for their infiltration to the planet and the window they had to extract Hackett was less then twelve minutes.

It was a tight time schedule and very low odds of success, especially if the Alliance's intel was off. But, as the top brass had assured them Admiral Hackett and Anderson were both holed up inside the remnants of a bomb shelter used by the Alliance for emergencies such as orbital bombardment, it had been created twenty years ago and very few people knew about it. A perfect foxhole.

Now, it was only a matter of fighting through the massive fleet of Reapers to get to them along with some insane ground to space Hades cannons. Not exactly a milk run.

The Helmsman turned to the Captain. "We're a minute out, Captain. Hope they're ready for what we're about to drop them into," he turned back to the controls and frowned in concentration.

"No one is," The Captain replied with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair before turning around and marching towards the elevator to get to the hanger.

The doors opened and he stepped into the hanger bay. He moved over to the single Jager shuttle that was prepped to leave the Normandy, along with the seven troopers next to it all gearing up for combat in the newest gear if half the things that the Captain saw were any indication.

They were all adorned in Alliance Shock Commando armor, heavy duty stuff available only to Special Operations teams on high-risk, fast paced missions. From the specs the Captain read earlier they had motors in the legs to increase running speed while reducing physical strain on the wearer. Their underlayer of the suit was made from a special crystalline weave normally reserved for MJOLNIR armor that the newer SPARTAN-IVs used, It was strong, flexible and once you took away the thought-makes-move part of the layer that ended it with snapping your limbs. Safe.

The outer layer was made of a series of matte blue plating, dark blue, almost black in color if it were any darker. Their material wasn't listed, but he assumed they were tough. Along with the shields on them as well. They were very expensive, more so then SPI, less so then MJOLNIR. So, he assumed they were another invention of the rising star of science that was Dr. Halsey.

The leader, a Commando with a red bar across his bicep, noted the Captain and stood straight with a nod. His team were ready,

The Captain returned the nod. "Commandos, you've been selected for this mission because you are the best, the elite." he scanned the seven soldiers. "You all know what to do, you must succeed or the Alliance Command structure will severely crippled." he paused and then saluted. "Good luck."

He turned and marched back to the elevator, leaving the Commandos to themselves.

The Red leader nodded to his team and they set their gear inside the Jager shuttle, then they got in themselves and the hatches closed behind them with a hiss.

Glacier base, Sanctum. 1800 Hours.
A Cerberus scientist scrambled towards the door in a panic as the dying gasp of one of his colleagues behind echoed inside his head like a horrific scream. He closed his eyes, got to the door and tried to enter the password. The door began to slide open when felt white hot pain lance up his body a moment before his world darkened and he slumped over.

Lucy withdrew her blade and flicked it to remove the gathered blood. She surveyed her work, all the bases scientists had been killed and the small security staff with them. Nothing was left of this base sides the Reaper Technology that the Illusive Man wanted contained or destroyed.

She walked over to one of said tech, it was a piece of something she couldn't name. With a sigh she disengaged the shields containing it and took it in her hand. She hefted it up, observed it and shook her head before tossing it over her shoulder into the wall, it clattered to the floor.

"All this trouble for some tech," she muttered, why did they fight? She wanted to ask questions but she was a soldier and she would do her duty to humanity. Moving over to the console she pressed a key and the data was being encrypted, compressed and ready for transport.

She paused slightly when she felt another presence in the room with her, closing her eyes Lucy waited for the moment to move. A gun was pressed to her back.

"Don-"

She didn't give her attacker time to finish his sentence before she spun to the side while using her elbow to move the weapon to the side as it discharged, destroying the console she was using. Her blade came up and slashed across the man's shielded forearm of his weapon hand.

He grunted and jumped back, his helmet obscuring his face but she knew who it was. This man had made a habit of following her and she could always tell it was him by the feeling in her gut. "Spectre Ambrose, stalking me yet again, are you?" she asked coyly.

Tom frowned and raised his Phalanx pistol. "Why did you kill everyone here?" he asked.

"Orders," Lucy replied and shot forward. Her body disappeared when her cloak activated and Tom leapt to the side to avoid her usual slash to his neck, before he hit the ground he too vanished under the power of his active camoflage.

The air stilled and nothing move. A weapon flashed and Lucy dove to the size when two more shots impacted her center, making her shields flare and her cloak drop. The air beside her flickered and her elbow struck out and sent Tom back holding his gut.

She ducked and sprang at him blade first. He deactivated his camo and brought his hand down to smack the blade to the side, it sheared through his shield and cut into his side, but it wasn't a vital and it hurt. But it provided the opening he needed.

His hand gripped the blade tightly and he raised his knee upwards, driving it into her gut and making her hiss in pain. Her grip loosened on the blade slightly and he jerked it out of her hand, pulled it from himself and tossed it away to the side.

She didn't take as much time to gather her breath as he hoped before she was on him again, tackling his midsection and taking him to the floor, they rolled twice and stopped with her on top of him. He punched her across the face with his, she kneed his groin and her left hand came up and pinned his right down and left went to her neck.

She leaned back, raised her right hand and took his knife from its sheath while doing so. When his hand missed her neck she rolled off of him and to her feet.

He reared his legs back and jumped to his own feet before he looked to his discarded Phalanx a feet away. She followed his gaze, saw the weapon and they both leapt for it. He was faster, his hand gripped the weapon's handle.

And then it was impaled. The blade of his knife pierced his shields, palm and grip of the pistol before embedding itself in the floor below a good two and half inches.

He hissed at the pain. Lucy moved over him and pinned his left arm behind his back with her knee, she leaned down, took his helmet and removed it. She saw the face of her hunter, his hair was dark, unkempt and wild, but still short to be combat effective. His eyes were dark and glaring over his shoulder at her, giving him an air of danger. His face was scarless sides the scar she had given him during one of their past meetings since the beginning.

"Who the hell are you?" Tom hissed and tried to move his impaled hand. Pain lanced up his arm and he stopped, he was pinned.

Lucy stared down at him and something inside her made her raised her other hand and remove the Phantom combat mask she wore, it slid off, revealing her face to her enemy. Her own dark hair was neatly taken care of, her purple sharp eyes gazed at him like a knife and her face was as he had remembered it.

"…It is you," Tom muttered, suddenly sullen. "I didn't want to believe it was you…" he said, eyes softening with something she didn't know.

What did he mean? she had been with Cerberus for awhile now, she didn't remember much else then waking up in a lab after a botched operation and being told she was one of Cerberus' top operatives. She had never seen this man before in her life, least. She didn't recall his face at memory. A past associate perhaps? She could have known him before her memories were lost.

While she zoned out in the possibilities Tom was in his own world as well. He had been hunting Cerberus to track down Lucy, and the first time he and this woman, now Lucy, had fought he had noticed the similarities. But he didn't want to believe them, that Lucy had tried to kill him. That Lucy was an enemy and she wanted to kill him. He accepted the possibility of another Spartan created by Cerberus or just plain coincidence.

Of course, he should have listened to the facts. But how could he when they pointed to his oldest friend being his enemy and needing to die because she served an organization of terrorists? No… he wouldn't accept that. He wouldn't kill her and he sure as Hell wouldn't let Cerberus continue with what they did to her to make her this way.

He growled and lifted his had up with a jerk. The knife left the floor and he rolled with it, she made a surprised sound before she was on her back and Tom was ripping the knife from his hand. She growled in her throat and tossed her mask at him, he swatted it away and was repaid with a fist to the face. He fell back nursing his nose.

Lucy rolled twice, got to her feet and rushed to her sword. She took it up, turned and rushed Tom. "Time to die!" she growled.

He lowered his hands, then raised his pistol and pressed the trigger. The weapon in his hand exploded and he cried out as the shards and heat washed over his unprotected face. She took the opportunity and kicked him in the chest onto his back. She placed her knee on his chest and lifted her sword over head her head to impale the Spectre.

Tom looked up at her, then drove his knife into her side with a twist. She gasped in pain and winced.

He withdrew it and grit his teeth and yelled. "Damnit!" he swung it for her neck.

She saw it coming, no time to dodge. She thrust her blade down towards his face point first.

She felt the blade on her neck and he saw the point of her sword near his eye. Time stopped.

Lucy panted, eyes slightly widened as she stared down at the man below her. Her heart was racing and she felt sweat build and drip down to fall onto his cheeks, giving him the appearance of a crying man. She just stared at his eyes until finally finding her voice. "Why?"

Tom stared back at her, the point of her sword at his eye. Hovering there shaking as her own palms shook. "Why what?" he whispered.

"Why did you stop your knife…" She clarified. Hands still shaking, she didn't understand. Her kinetic barriers wouldn't have stopped his blade from slitting her throat. She should be dying now.

Tom blinked once, then replied levelly. "The same reason you stopped your sword." His own forehead was soaked with sweat, he was tired and his hand was bleeding freely like her own wound. His skin was reddened where the heat from his exploding Phalanx had got him.

Lucy knew he was right. Something inside her stopped her from finishing him. Her blade hovered over his eye and tried as she might, her body didn't budge to finish it. The feeling in her gut and chest grew tight and this all felt wrong.

Tom…

The name echoed in her head like a distant whisper and she said softly. "You're Tom, aren't you?"

It had to be, she had dreams of a man named Tom. When she slept she was on battlefields with him, in some old armor fighting monsters with primitive guns. He was always there, beside her and covering her and she covered him like it was second nature.

"Yes, Lucy," he nodded slowly, making sure not to stab his eye on the point of her sword. "I'm Tom." he affirmed.

She gulped, he stared. She almost closed her eyes to imagine him in the armor she dreamed of, but she just forced herself to keep them open and watch him. "Operation torpedo…" she mumbled, remembering the briefing she dreamed one time in her many sleeps.

"Was the end of our Company, Min died when his charge blew prematurely and…" Tom began.

"Adam took a pink shard to the back… he died holding them off for our team to finish the mission," Lucy finished for him. She had dreamed the mission in detail, vivid detail and she had felt herself wake screaming when she herself screamed in the dream at Min's demise. "How… do you know that?"

Tom slowly raised his hand and moved her blade away from his face. "Because I was there, you know me, Lucy." he said, placing a palm on his chest and his eyes searched her own. He could see the confusion in them. "I know you too, Lucy."

She dropped her sword and gripped her head. "What is this? These are dreams, you can't be that Tom, you're lying somehow! Dreams, nothing more!" she grew almost frantic, this was too much for her. How could he see her dreams? That's all they were! The races in her dreams didn't exist and there was no asteroid or system called Pegasi whatever its name was! This was insane.

"You can't be real, he can't be real…" She mumbled. Suddenly feeling small and exposed as her frustration and confusion mounted.

Tom stared at her, eyes a mix of hurt and relief. She didn't forget him, not entirely anyways. Her subconscious remembered him and deep behind whatever lies Cerberus had implanted in her skull, she knew him still. But to see her acting this way, denying his existence pulled at his chest in painful ways.

He pushed them back and leaned up when she removed her knee. He wrapped his arms around her and said, "Calm down, Lucy. It's alright, it's alright." he soothed, he didn't know what to say, but he had seen enough families do this to know how to do it himself.

Lucy didn't say anything after awhile before she looked up at him, her hair brushing his cheek as she levelled her eyes with his. "Tom… are we alive?" she asked in that small, shaken voice she did on that shore so long ago.

Tom nodded slowly. She stared a moment, then she slumped against him and they both fell over when Tom wasn't prepared for it. He huffed once, looked down at her unconscious form. He guessed the mental stress of the conditioning fighting back her memories had done this. He crushed his worries, shifted and lifted her bridal style, he glanced around before setting her on a desk and moving over to his helmet.

He put it back on, turned his communicator on and said. "The base has been cleared… I've got a prisoner, need extraction at the LZ in five." he turned it off and moved back over to Lucy. Aside from the purple eyes, she was exactly how he remembered her.

And her voice had matured as well, he noted now that he thought about it. It stirred something inside him, he smiled slightly. Something good finally happened, he had gotten her back.

End of chapter 27

I know I kinda left a cliffhanger for the upcoming operation EAGLE in here. But I felt I needed to get the whole "Lucy and Tom" plot going along before I side burnered it completely in favor of focusing wholly on the war and not the things that happen on the side. Now, I am however a little conflicted and where to take our two little Spartans relationship. Way I see it, it can go either way, they could become full blown lovers, since their relationship is rather open to the concept. Or they can remain their very tightly knit, fire team family style. I would like some thoughts on this! Thanks.

And, that's right people, like Asteroid Assault and CURTAINFALL. The next chapter will be dominated by a bunch of shooting, sneaking and Alliance VS Overwhelming odds goodness!