WOOT! Yes, everyone, I've finally got the next chapter up! Can't believe it's been over a month…sorry, guys, feel free to lob tomatoes or something at me. At any rate, we're here. Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, the chapter title is an old Heart song, from which I also took a bit of the refrain (hey, it fit). Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo.
Chapter Ten: Back to Avalon
April 22, 2558
UNSC High Command
Sydney, Australia
It had been two weeks since the mysterious 'Blade' had escaped HighCom, and no one knew where she had ended up. No one fitting her description had been reported leaving the continent, and she was nowhere to be found locally. They had even sent the SPARTAN-IIs and SPARTAN-IIIs looking for her, but she had left no discernable trace. It was as if she'd completely vanished. Well, almost. From time to time the Spartans found a few carved stones, each with a mark only a few people could understand.
"Any trace of her?" Ackerson asked the latest search group, which consisted of Tom, Lucy, Kelly, and Fred.
"No sir, not a footprint. Though with the dense vegetation in some areas it would be hard to even notice a footprint; there're so many wild animals that tracks are hard to tell." Fred tilted his helmet to one side. "What about tracking her neural implants?"
"The implants are…malfunctioning. Probably the jungles are interfering with the electronics. In any case, she can only run for so long." Ackerson scowled, knowing that once again Blade had gained the advantage. "Dismissed, Spartans."
The group saluted, and kept quiet until they got back to the barracks assigned to the Spartans. John, Linda, and Ash were conversing quietly in one corner, while Olivia and Mark kept a watch. Looking up, John waved the small group over.
"Find anything?" he asked, making a subtle motion with his hand; Fred knew he'd disabled the recording devices ONI kept placing in the room.
"Not much, Laura still knows how to vanish; if anything she's gotten better at it over time. All I found was this." Fred held up a carved flat stone, engraved with two crossed blades; the stone itself was small enough to be concealed in the palm of someone's hand, and the only reason Fred had found it was because…yeah, I think I'll keep that to myself.
"Where'd you find that?" Tom asked, while Lucy cocked her helmet behind him. Great, now I have to tell them.
"It…got thrown at my head," he muttered. John and Linda chuckled.
"That doesn't surprise me much," Linda smiled. "She never really warmed up to you that well."
Fred scowled and set down his equipment. Ash, meanwhile, studied the stone curiously.
"She keeps leaving things for us to find, but doesn't want ONI to catch her. This doesn't make much sense."
"Laura's leaving a trail." John frowned thoughtfully. "She's betting that someone's going to come looking for her, and she's trusting us to point the way. Why do you think she only left these when she knew we'd be looking?"
"How do you know so much about her, Chief?" Kelly asked. Thankfully, John was spared the necessity of replying when the door opened. Dr. Halsey stepped through, followed by two people John hadn't expected to see for a while.
"General West, Dr. Gedeon, what brings you here?"
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Lucy regarded the elderly doctor curiously, seeing something familiar in the older woman's face. That's weird, a doctor and a general arriving together—and that doctor looks familiar. Is she one of ONI's doctors?
"Good to see you again, Master Chief," the general said, extending his hand to grasp the Chief's gauntleted one—another thing that struck her as unusual. "We heard a few…rumors…about one of our soldiers and decided to come check for ourselves."
"She give you the slip again?" the strange doctor asked, smiling. When John nodded, she only shook her head. "They never learn, do they?"
"No ma'am, apparently not," Fred spoke up, moving forward. "She's nearby, but we don't even know where. Only leaves a few indicators every once in a while." He indicated the small collection of stones with their crude, but legible, signs: an eagle's talon, a wolf's paw print, a horseshoe, and the two crossed knives. They know something, Lucy thought.
"And there's no tracking her through her implants, either. We stopped and asked on the way in, ONI thinks the jungle's interfering…or so they say," General West smirked. "I'll bet my rank that there's a very specific virus running around in ONI's systems, am I right Chief?"
"Yes sir, though I have no clue how it got in, or how long it'll take before it's shut down." It seemed to the young Spartan that the Master Chief was playing a game with the strangers, and that the SPARTAN-IIs (with the exception of Kelly) were in on it.
"Dr. Gedeon, any thoughts?" The general directed the question at the other doctor, and Lucy suddenly realized that Dr. Halsey had said nothing, and was simply listening to the other two.
"Where were these found? Were they in different locations or the same spot?" Perceptive, she thought.
"Now that you mention it, they were all kind of in the same area, most of them," Fred was unwilling to say more, but from the look on Dr. Gedeon's face, his secret was already out.
"I'd like to examine the area for myself, if it's possible. Perhaps there's something you've overlooked." She knows, she knows where Blade is!
Lucy approached the doctor and tapped her head, tilting it slightly as if asking a question, which in essence was what she was doing; since her first mission she had been unable to speak, though it wasn't for lack of trying.
"No, I don't know exactly, but I have a pretty good guess. And sometimes, a good guess is more than enough to strike gold." Dr. Gedeon placed one hand on Lucy's armored shoulder reassuringly, then scooped up the small stones. "General, I'll go see if there's more to find out there—I daresay I'm the only one who can."
"Probably a safe bet," West agreed, much to Lucy's surprise. "Meanwhile I'll go yell at Ackerson, see if I can shake him down a bit. How in hell the bastard managed to make it out of prison…" he trailed off, running one hand through graying and quickly-thinning hair. "Never mind what I think. See if you can find our runaway."
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John took point, with Dr. Gedeon following close behind. Behind them he heard the barely-there sounds of the other Spartans, moving quietly through the thick undergrowth. Amazingly, the only tracks they could see were from the earlier search parties and from various animals native to the area. No wonder Laura can hide here, she has plenty of ways to cover her tracks.
Stopping suddenly, John held up one hand, signaling for the others to stop. They'd reached the area where most of the stones had been found, a clearing of sorts: it was barely more than a patch of green surrounded by trees and vines. A small pile of smoldering ashes indicated that someone had only just vacated the area.
"She was here, wasn't she?" Dr. Gedeon whispered.
"There's no way of knowing who could have been here, ma'am," he replied, though the odds were high that it had been Laura.
"One way to find out," the aged doctor replied. Drawing herself up, she threw her head back and bellowed:
"OLLY OLLY EN FREE!"
For a while nothing happened, unless you were to count all the Spartan heads that whipped around to face the elderly woman. Then there was a crashing noise through the underbrush, and about nine assault rifles snapped up just as something large and powerful crashed through the undergrowth…
"Mom!"
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April 24, 2558
UNSC High Command
Sydney, Australia
The group of Spartans headed out to the landing pad, preceded by General West and Dr. Halsey. He'd pretty much told ONI that he'd take them to Camp Hayes, and considering both his reputation and the strong ONI presence in that area, the UNSC Security Council had acquiesced. However, the Forerunners were forced to remain behind—West's influence was, regrettably, limited in that regard. Still, Arisaya and Arnyris were at least able to escort the small group as far as the landing pads. Dr. Halsey had insisted on accompanying the Spartans to Camp Hayes, professing interest in the "new" SPARTAN-II that had been missing for about two and a half weeks.
"Any idea where Blade got to?" Fred spoke up.
"No idea, son, but knowing her she'll be waiting for us at the landing pads," West chuckled. "Don't entirely know how she does it, but the girl doesn't miss a beat."
"What can you tell me about this 'Blade', General?" Dr. Halsey commented from the middle of the group. John watched as the officer's posture stiffened slightly: a common occurrence, he'd noticed, when people tried to get information about Laura from him.
"Quite a bit, Doctor, but I won't. You'd be better off asking her when you see her. Just don't be surprised if she rips you a new one; it's a bit of a touchy subject for her."
The landing pads came into view, and as they got closer John noticed a figure perched on top of a Pelican: black-clad, dark hair, and seemingly completely relaxed. As they got even closer he noticed the figure was decidedly female and appeared to be focused entirely on the piece of wood she was carving. The dark head lifted suddenly, and within moments the woman dropped from the Pelican's wing to the tarmac, straightened, and headed their way.
"General West, didn't expect to see you here. Come to bring me home?" Laura snapped a salute—which rated somewhere between crisp and casual—and stood at a more relaxed form of attention (he'd known her for six years and still didn't know how she managed to pull it off).
"At ease, Laura—though if you got any more relaxed you might fall over." The two looked at each other for a moment, and then began chuckling almost simultaneously.
"Believe me, sir, I'm anything but relaxed. Any idea when we'll be able to get a move on?"
West smiled. "Just waiting on you, Laura. If you have anything else to do I suggest you do it now."
"Got it." Laura looked past him to the two young Forerunners, who were viewing the exchange with some semblance of curiosity.
"ONI's going to be keeping you here, young ones. If I were you I wouldn't trust them—they think only of defending our home, through any means they deem necessary."
"You think they will try and force us to aid them?" Arnyris asked—rather sharply, she noticed, but then again she didn't blame him. He's probably still trying to wrap his brain around all this. Still, he needs to learn some restraint—one of these days he'll go off like a shot against the wrong person.
"It is possible, though it's more likely they will try to use trickery against you. Be alert and ready for anything. I'll keep an eye out for you as best I can."
"How? You will not be here," Arisaya noted. The young scientist had already commandeered a good portion of Laura's respect, and in her own way she had grown fond of the girl.
"ONI isn't the only one with spies, Arisaya. Though mine isn't easily seen, she's always there." Laura smiled warmly. "Be well, Arisaya, kind soul."
Turning around, Laura headed for the Pelican, which the others had already boarded. She looked back long enough to wave goodbye, then sat down and strapped into the only remaining seat. Hurry, hurry, hurry! I want to get home NOW!!
"A bit antsy, are we?" Fred commented, indicating a booted foot that Laura hadn't realized she was tapping.
"Wouldn't you be?" she replied, forcing herself to calm down; pulling out the flute she'd been carving, she continued to work on it in an effort to keep herself occupied.
"We'll be back before you know it, Laura," West's voice echoed from near the cockpit; he'd stationed himself there in case there was a problem. Always likes to be prepared, she smiled inwardly.
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"We're coming up on Camp Hayes in a few minutes," the pilot's voice echoed through the mike. After a moment's pause he added, "Ready, Laura?"
Laura smiled—this was an old tradition for her, one that almost every pilot on Camp Hayes knew. "Ready when you are."
Releasing the catch on her restraints, she stood up and walked to the edge of the hatch, ignoring the surprised looks from the other Spartans and Dr. Halsey, focused only on the hatch that was opening in front of her. Grabbing a handhold, she leaned forward, feeling the wind on her face and her hair whipping out behind her. I'm home, she thought, and after a few moments she heard herself singing quietly:
"And the phoenix flies/ Straight and high, back to Avalon. And I'm on my way/ Back where I belong/ Gonna go there with the sun…"
The ground was coming up quickly, and she could see a familiar blonde figure waiting on the landing pad. Not even waiting for the Pelican to hit the ground, Laura jumped, rolled, and bounded to her feet on the tarmac; she completely disregarded the chuckles and gasps behind her as she pulled Nicole Mitchell into a fierce hug. It's good to be home.