Chapter 19

A/N: Hello everyone, how're you doing? Thanks for being patient. And welcome back to another chapter of Becoming Human.

Now I know it's currently summer, but right now I only have one month left of summer break before I return to finish my final year of high school.

And sorry if I haven't been updating as much as I wanted to since it is my time to relax. I've just been very busy with my job, me going into lazy phases, Overwatch, being with visiting cousins, and just general picking around, I found time to write again. So apologies for make you guys wait.

And you're also probably wondering about the the other stories I have up as well. I will be working on them and hopefully churn out more chapters in the days to come. Even with my hands full, I'll do what I can to give you some content to read.

Well I'll stop ranting for now. As usual, sorry if some stuff looks rusty as I've been in writers block and all. And I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

UNSC Pathfinder, Remnant's Orbit, Southern Hemisphere, two days later...

That was seventy five times she ran the simulation. Seventy five damn times. And every one she attempted, they all shared roughly the same calculations as the last one that had finished. Ceri groaned and rubbed her face in frustration looking at the hastily drawn notes and the simulation percentages of success to failure.

"Why isn't anything changing? I'm sure that with every adjustment I'm making should increase the chances... And it only went up just by two percent." Ceri sighed as she leaned back against her seat and closed her eyes. "I don't want to send Riley to his grave when he takes the augmentation. But he's willing... And they want results soon..."

It horrified her to the core. It had been running through her head multiple times as the days flew by, and it just scared her to the point that she wanted to postpone the procedure, all for the sake of her sanity. But she knew that her brother-in-law was a stubborn man and would go with it anyway no mater what would be told of him

All what Ceri could do was pray and hope nothing horrific would happen during the operation. It was her leading it as well, and pressure was heavy on her shoulders. Her project could go south any moment during the procedure

"Again... Prepare another simulation... Gloria... Please run simulation seventy six. This will be the last one for tonight..." Ceri asked the A.I with her eyes glued to the hologram before her.

"At once, Ceri. And stop fretting over there. I'm sure everything will turn out fine," Gloria replied back with an encouraging smile. It may've been minimal, but it did so much to ease the ONI Scientist enough for her to concentrate for the task ahead.

"Begin Simulation Seventy Six then."

The A.I nodded before a small thought ran across her mind causing her to smile. "Soldiers never die, no? They always seem to stick around no matter what happens, right?" Gloria mentioned over to the ONI Scientist with her small signature smile.

Ceri could only respond back with a small smile of her own and nodded. "I guess you're right. Let's see if we can fix these equations then, shall we?"

Beacon Academy, Staff Dormitories, two days later, Evening...

Glynda yawned softly with a hand covering her mouth instinctively. It had been a rather tiring day considering she had to once again cover a class for the man she was assigned to watch and monitor was given some time off from the Headmaster himself. Then again, she was notified about the upcoming medical procedure that The ODST is getting himself into. But that did little to relieve the stress she begrudgingly took on because of his current leave on duty.

To summarize, Glynda detested every moment needing to be in Riley's class to watch over. The only relief she got from this was that his brother was in the vicinity along with Cole and offered their services to help her out today and the next three days since his flagship was just nearby the academy since the procedure will be conducted on the Pathfinder.

This also included the fact that Patrick had invited both Ozpin and Ironwood, along with some of their own staff, to witness the augmentation operation that would come to happen. He had shown both men a couple of the handful of Spartans the UNSC Forces on Remnant had in their ranks saying that they themselves are genetically enhanced soldiers who are capable in causing opposing forces heavy losses before the main UNSC Forces would come in to engage the enemy.

"I have to admit, his role as the Commander of the UNSC here fits him perfectly. People follow him without question and he instills hope within others, and only pushes them just enough to the point of improvement. I can see where he gets his leadership skills from. Even if it's rather unorthodox."

The Huntress as well was impressed by the hand to hand combat that the Sharpshooter possessed. Despite not having his own Aura unlocked, Cole demonstrated an expert display of his experience after managing to make the tallest First Year Student, Yatsuhashi was tapping on the ground begging for air thanks to Cole almost wrapping his entire body around his neck to make him submit in less than a minute. "Even the toughest guys can break when you hit the right spots," Cole told the class.

Though at the moment, Glynda just wanted some rest so she could prepare herself for tomorrow as her schedule is twice as busy than it was before she had to take over for Riley. All she wanted to do was to fall into her bed unceremoniously and sleep the night away, temporary forgetting about her duties and just slump down in the sheets.

Turning around the corner, she was met with the sight of her fellow friends Port and Oobleck in front of the very man she was assigned to watch. Glynda was confused seeing why they were standing there, but walking closer, she saw the stout grey haired professor's brows unfurled in concerned fashion.

"Peter, what's going on here?" Glynda questioned approaching the two men.

Port focused his sights onto The Huntress and sighed softly shaking his head. "We've been trying to see if Riley is doing well. Me and Oobleck here were making our way to the lounge to have a small chat before we heard some screams from his room," He explained to Glynda, a soft tone accompanying his voice.

"We've just been knocking on his door for quite some time now since we don't want to break his door down," Oobleck added in, his speaking albeit a little slower than usual. "And during our time here, we've been hearing him screaming from time to time, mostly names and some rather incoherent shouts."

Glynda sighed hearing these two and crossed her arms. "Please, you two. I'm pretty sure Mr. O'Neil is just having a simple nightmare. We've all had them. Nothing to be so concerned about."

"Glynda, you surely jest on that! He could be experiencing something horrific in his dreams at the moment!" The Speedy Professor argued to his colleague. "He's a fellow staff member to this school, and it should be the responsibility of every professor and instructor here to support each other."

Glynda opened her mouth to retort to Oobleck's words before she was interrupted by a muffled ear piercing scream from behind the door that lead into The ODST's room. Port shook his head and looked sternly at the Blond Huntress. "We have no time to argue over such things. We must see to him if he's alright," He stated to her.

Glynda scowled silently seeing how these two weren't going anywhere until she would help them out. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" She thought bitterly. Lowering her head in defeat, Glynda procured her Scroll before running it across the small electronic lock on the door. A small beep was heard with an additional soft chime indicating it was now unlocked, she reached for the doorknob and opened it.

The three were soon met headlong with shock at what they're witnessing. The bed on the far side of the room was a wreck, the sheets all in a messy heap and the pillow discarded along the floor. A knife was imbedded into the wall with a couple slashes along it as well. And there sprawled on the floor as well was Riley, with his clothes just loose on him and a couple rips. But what shocked them was seeing the tears that were staining his face, and gazed upon a fresh bite mark adorned on his right forearm bleeding a little bit of blood.

Port was instantly on the case rushing himself over to The ODST. Kneeling down beside him, he gently placed his hands on his arms shaking him softly. "Wake up, lad. Wake up!"

But it was no use as the ODST seemed to just curl up into a ball, or did his best as he tried to push Port away from him.

Riley's eyes opened slightly, revealing them to be all red and puffy, continuing to leak tears out. They darted about, as if they were trying to avoid something. But then his eyes landed on Glynda and he shook his head. "No... Please don't go... Don't go... Please don't go..." He droned out with sorrow laced in his words.

Port looked over to his fellow friends and shook his head. "He isn't paying attention to me. It's like he's in some kind of trance."

Oobleck nodded and rushed over to look at the open eyes of Riley as he continued to whimper out the same words over and over. Inspecting them closely, he looked at Port with a concerned look. "He's going through some type of episode at the moment. Perhaps a flashback of some sort."

"Either way we can't leave him here! We must get him to the infirmary!" Port stated to the Speedy Professor. Not wanting to get their permission, he soon stood up and then grabbed Riley, hefting him over his shoulder. "He needs to be looked after!" With that, the Stout Professor ran out of the room with the weeping ODST barely responding to what he did.

Glynda and Oobleck just looked at each other, still in shock at what had transpired before them.

Infirmary, some time later...

A tired Patrick was currently seated in a chair beside a bed. In that bed laid his brother, which took a sedative and a miracle of some sort to finally able to get him to fall asleep. Though the face of The ODST was still marked with an uneasy look signifying he wasn't in the clear just yet.

The three professors were with him as well as The Rear Admiral took another glance at his sleeping brother before nodding. "Thank you for notifying me."

"You are his brother. You deserve to know what's happening to him," Port responded to him, eyebrows furled down seeing the suffering man on the bed.

Oobleck nodded in agreement as he himself was settled down in a chair right across from Patrick. "It does concern me how he had such a violent episode this night. Is he doing alright? Because he seemed like he was in some sort of regretting phase."

The Rear Admiral sighed softly looking at the three with a sober look accompanying him. "It's not his fault he's like that. I'm just glad he hasn't completely lost it yet."

Glynda looked at patrick with a confused expression etching itself to her face. "What do you mean he hasn't lost it yet?"

"Tell me, how does a man earn the callsign Ghost?" Patrick answered back sternly to The Huntress, eyes boring right into her's. "I'm sure you three have rough theories to as why he has that as his callsign."

The three remained silent as they all pondered over that very question. It was a rather thoughtful one as well, even for the speedy green haired professor.

Glynda softly bit the inside of her cheeks trying to think, piecing things together what gave way to him earning such a title and his recent outburst. "What could've triggered him to go into such a state? I mean there are a number of reasons to as why, but what could it be-?"

That's when it dawned on her as she recalled memories with her official meeting with The ODST back in Ozpin's tower all those months ago. "I lost too many men in the field... Yet I never even stopped to grieve for them... Not even one..." She whispered softly to herself with her eyes widening from this.

Looking over at Patrick, she saw a sad smile on his face with him nodding slowly. "I see my little brother has told you, Ms. Goodwitch." Leaning back against his seat, he nodded mentally slowly steeling his thoughts together. "Prof. Port? Prof. Oobleck? Would it be too much to ask of you if I could talk to Prof. Goodwitch in private?" Patrick requested to the two men.

They were a little surprised hearing this from the Read Admiral but they nodded in return. "Very well. I see no problem in that. We'll take our leave then. Good night you two," Port replied to Patrick who returned his own nod.

The two professors turned about and soon left Glynda and Patrick to themselves in the small room, with small beeps going off as they continued to monitor the status of The ODST. "Prof. Goodwitch, please take a seat if you'd like. We maybe here for awhile," Patrick finally said to her after a moment of good silence plaguing the two within the room.

Glynda slowly nodded, seating herself on the chair Port was occupying earlier. The atmosphere of the room took a huge drop, almost feeling cold. Maybe even dead if she had to describe the feeling. But at the same time, it wasn't threatening, it felt... Sad.

"I have to agree with my wife when she says that women have an entire different method of thinking and understanding no matter what life they live," Patrick started off as he got himself comfortable into his seat. "Glynda... I want to tell you why my brother is the way he is today. What caused him to have a night terror... And why he's in pain." His eyes once again stared right into hers. Glynda felt a chill slither up her spine seeing the serious tone the brown orbs. "But I want to know from you that everything I'll be telling and showing you will be only be kept between us. Can you promise me that?"

Glynda nodded silently at him, seeing that he wasn't joking about. Then again, it wasn't her to start blathering her mouth off about personal information.

Patrick smiled a little as he leaned forward and placed his chin over his hands. "Well then, let's start this off where it all began. Twenty eight years ago back on the Planet Reach."

And we'll end things off there people. Finally you'll be seeing what has made Riley into the man he is. All I can say that I hope it won't be that long, hoping it'll stay at least to about two chapters, one if I'm lucky, three being the maximum.

So what do you guys think? Why does he have so much regret, asides from the marine dying in his arms? What could be plaguing his thoughts constantly? You'll all soon find out.

And a cookie to those who found the easter eggs in the chapter. If you didn't, get yourself a saltine.

See you guys next time.