"Hello Cortana" I breathed, waving awkwardly.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Cortana. Lost in the Composer. Rampant. Dead. She was supposed to be destroyed! She said goodbye to the Chief! Okay, this day is getting weirder and weirder. I wanted to check if I was dreaming, but I'd have to take my helmet off first. And according to logic, take your helmet off while in the middle of Promethean space is not a good idea.

Cortana looked at me blankly, but it didn't that aura of intimidation was missing. It was simply… blank. "Um… hi?" I asked again. I stood nervously as she just stared at me. Then she spoke, but not what I expected – "Alerting Guards. Intruder detected." I instantly realised that she was brainwashed. I tried to persuade her out of it, pleading, "I'm on your side! I'm a human- a Spartan IV!" Then at the word of 'Spartan', her avatar flinched, but continued the droning alert message. Interesting. I gripped the projector tightly and continued, "I am of UNSC! Can't you see my FOF tag? Oh come on!" My radar showed a patrol group closing in. I got desperate. "Please! For UNSC! For humanity! For –"I stopped for a moment, then realised this was the only way to get her out. "- for John." Cortana stopped. Then she grimaced and collapsed, writhing and screaming in pain. I stood over her, horrified at what was happening. The rooms was coloured red, then blue, and continued this pattern. "She must be fighting against herself…" I mumbled, and then cheered her on, "For the Masterchief, Cortana! You can win this! Do it for him!" The flashes of blue got longer and longer, until there was no more red left.

But as soon as the room turned blue, my shield sizzled. I ducked behind the terminal, and waited silently as the group closed in. As I hid Cortana stopped writhing, instead sat panting on the ground, gasping deeply and shakingly. I had no time to comfort her. A crawler pounced and landed next to me, then turned and tried to snap at me. Instead, it got a mouth full of titanium, then to help it digest, I shoved Slicer down the 'throat' of the Promethean, and pulled it out. "Not for you doggy." I growled, and I jumped out, my Slicer held high. Two knights, 3 crawlers. I sprinted and jumped, unto the knight which was just raising its gun to fire. We landed heavily and I heard the satisfying crack of armour. The other knight opened fire, as well as the crawlers. I jumped off, kicking the Knight into the dogs in the process and back-flipped over the knight. The knight in retaliation started to teleport to my back, but I quickly stabbed the small singularity. Magnets in my knife warped the singularity, destroying the fragile balance it had. It re-emerged, as a mangled metal piece. I laughed and commented, "Looked like you are having DOG days!" Then a cheery voice replied, "I would question the use of that pun." I spun around and saw Cortana, fully recovered.

"What happened?" I questioned, but she simply replied, "This would not be the best time to talk. Put me in." I was a little confused. "Uh… how do you… um… put you in where?" I said, confused. She calmly (thank Chief for that, because if she got angry then it would be the first signs of rampancy.) stated, "take off the thruster pack and insert the terminal in there. I followed her instructions, and clipped her in. Instantly my head felt as if it was filled with cool fluid. "Spartan 024, Harry. Qualified as a Spartan just 2 weeks ago. Lots of room in here." She was a voice in my head! Ooh, I was not really used to this. I felt a little giddy, but Cortana stated, "I'd hurry to run if I was you. Detecting movements outside the corridor." I re-stocked the weapons, picking up the boltshot. I was about to abandon the cannon, but decided it could be useful to get out of a mess. I sprinted out the doorway my pursuers shooting. As I ran, Cortana filled me in.

"The good part of me, the part that had not succumbed to rampancy had protected Chief from the explosion. But the part that was rampant was in the composer, still overloading the shields. Diadact survived his encounter with Chief, and from the intel I got later on he was half dead and lost his right leg, but still alive. He escaped on a remnant of the Composer, as I did. The rampant copies were still in the remnants, until I was brought back together by the Diadact. He cleared my databases and bundled the copies together, tying the flawed copies to make one good one. Then he inserted a code-serum, without it I was rampant and useless, and with it I was under his control. I was worked as an overseer of this facility, before you came and mentioned him. I broke free of the serum and utilised it to repair myself. Now the code was an anti-dote to Rampancy."

I ducked down as the fire-squad shot, and I struck back with a charged up boltshot. "Uh, sorry, but I am surprised – "I headshot a watcher "- but I am in a middle of a battlefield right now, and I don't have time to express." I stated.

"Reasonable answer. Come on – the corridor down the left is free of enemies. Proceed there and close the blast doors." She replied, and I complied. I still felt weird having an AI. As soon as I closed the blast doors, there was a loud sound of pipes bursting and there was screaming sound from the opposite, and she happily stated, "I'm still connected to the facility, and have some control over it." I stood and asked, "What's this facility about?"

"This facility is a factory of sentinels and Prometheans. It is controlled by the Diadact, and he is planning to take over Fog and the rest of the shield worlds. I have analysed his movements, and it has been evident that he plans to re-awaken the systems and build more of the Prometheans and the sentinels. It can be speculated that he is planning revenge on humanity."

My heart stopped. I had realised how important this mission was. I gulped. It was beyond my grasp, this. But I had to do it.

"Cortana?"

"Yes?"

"I need to get you out of here."

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