Chapter 12: Truth and Reconciliation

Larry exited the command center, retrieving his lightsaber from Hero, who still stood at the door.

Walking back towards the hanger bay, wondering if his comrades would find their way here, he pulled into his consciousness, disturbed by the conspiracy that swirled around him. He couldn't shake the sensation off. He felt partially responsible for what was happening. John Call had said that the fate of the game was twisted with his actions could he be accountable for the actions of others? Or did his status effect only events, and not the decisions of others?

The shuttle ramp lowered and Larry entered. He needed to talk to Ownage.

Descending from the shuttle, Larry step onboard the Pride and headed for Ownages's HQ.

Abruptly, his muscles jerked sending him 10 feet into the air, the cloth of his uniform brushing the ceiling plates. He rolled, landing on the other side of the corridor just as blaster fire exploded from the hallway that had been beside him. Lightsaber already glowing in his hand, he stood in a combat position, ready for a confrontation.

Two people sprinted around the corner, bullets and beams skittering down the hallway behind them. Barely avoiding a collision, the pair dashed around Larry and into the maze of passageways near the Pride's core. The Jedi stepped to the center of the hallway, his blade humming before him, blocking the path of those hunting his friends.

The two men gripping phaser pistols, and a man with an M-4 raced down the opposite hallway, curses streaming out of their mouths as they headed for a junction far out of their way.

"I must find Ownage"

Larry watched the three men disappear around the corner, still concerned for the safety of his friends. Pacing himself a little faster this time, Larry picked up his course towards the Operations Center. Someone there could tell him were to find Ownage.

He summoned the lift. The doors sprang back to admit him and he stepped inside. The walls of the lift were punctured with dozens of holes. Larry frowned, looking at the residue that coated the walls.

"I hope this thing still runs."

Taking a deep breath Larry keyed the sequence for the command center. The lift went up. Larry stepped onto the bridge and into the sites of five marines. The cold form of his light saber worked its way into his palm. These men, these warriors, were scared of him. Maybe he could use that.

He narrowed his eyes and pushed his voice deeper.

"Where is the Fleet Admiral? I wish to speak with him."

His inquisition was met with straying eyes. All five men were looking towards the conference room to the left of the bridge. Yes, Ownage was there, but he wasn't alone. Something, no, someone, was there with him. Harrod turned trying to get to the conference room. Five men stood in his path. A current of annoyance drifted across his face. The blade of his light saber formed a rod in front of him. Five men stepped slowly to the side. He entered the conference room.

Cano sat, slumped, his cuffs locked to the table. Ownage was leaning against the opposite wall, and glanced up sharply when Larry entered. A sharp grin crawled into Ownages features. He started to speak, "Welcome Jedi, to my command center." Ownage waved a fist high in the air, a gesture of power, of victory. "Come, meet my guest."

Larry stepped forward, and for the first time, he noticed a slender collar buckled around Cano's neck. He peered forward, curious. The flash of tiny lights rotated around the edge of the collar and two gray wires ran up Cano's neck to disappear into his hair.

Looking back at Ownage, Larry gestured at the collar. "And this would be…?"

Ownage looked incredibly proud of him self as he explained. "It's a link destabilizer. The valiant Cano has been captive to DreamLand for 13 consecutive hours now. I tried other... persuasions but he refused to talk. It seems that they were not as effective as they should have been. I need information. He could have cooperated, but his ideas of loyalty and honor seemed to confuse him. Ideals will bring a man to his knees. And look at him, his endurance is seeping away, draining from his body, leaving it a puppet to be manipulated at the whim of others. I have no use for such ethics, such weakness. I am the reclaimer. I control the fates of many. Our pathetic leaders didn't seem to understand the value of such power, the admiration of the masses. They refused to use the control they had at their finger tips. And look where they land. Holed up, fighting for their lives, when they once commanded the doom of so many."

Quiet rage welled into Larry's mind and he fought to control himself. Straightening he stepped forward reaching to unlock Cano's cuffs. Ownage didn't move to stop him as he got closer to Cano, but when he unlocked the cuffs the Fleet Admiral's posture became aggressive. Larry spoke before Ownage could. His voice was harsh, accusing.

"He will be set free; this is one step past the line between necessity and torture, o' great relcaimer. Your delusions make you weak, and your single minded obsession with yourself and the power that circumstance has handed you, show you to be a smaller man. Such power befits you poorly."

An incredulous look planted itself on Ownage's features. He was amazed that this Jedi had the gall to spit in his face and expect to stride away unchallenged. Larry and Cano were halfway to the door. Ownage fingered the gun belted to his side. The bolt came flying back towards him just barely missing his left shoulder. Ownage un-strapped his wicked half-moon axe as he rolled to avoid his redirected fire. Swinging in a wide arc, Ownage's axe clashed violently with Larry's light saber. Surprise coursed through the Jedi as his blade failed to rip the axe asunder.

"Meet my blade Jedi, and equal match for yours I would think." Harrod swept his other saber out from under his cloak, just in time to parry a seeping blow directed at his knees. Crossing his two blades he lunged to the right slamming off of the wall and rolling to a stand behind Ownage. The tip of his purple blade skimmed across the flesh of Ownage's left thigh. A cry more of anger then pain burst into the air as Ownage turned to hack at Larry. As the blade scratched the floor beside his skull, Larry twisted trying to avoid the irritated metal fragments that sparked into the air beside his face.

The hot hiss of the yellow light saber meet the metal of Ownage's weapon a foot above Larry's head; struggling to rise he kicked Ownage's wounded leg. As his muscles gave under the strike of Larry's boot, Ownage strove to parry the Jedi's second saber.

The purple blade discovered its mark in the Ownage's torso. The larger man crumpled, looking to the wall for support. Pulling his pistol from his side, Ownage stared down the point of his gun towards Larry.

Dropping his second saber, Larry focused his thoughts inward, pulling him self into the current that was the force. He felt danger.

Ownage tilted his gun towards Cano.

Larry lunged forward, his blade singing its path through the air, trying to divert aim of the gun.

Cano and Ownage fell at the same moment. And Larry's cry reverberated in the limits of the conference room.

His knees hit the cool metal of the floor plates as he sunk to Cano's side. Larry pulled on the wires that ran into Cano's hair, disconnecting the device that anchored him to DreamLand. Cano's form disappeared as his account was deactivated. Ownage's image had already decompiled, and two feet above the spot where he had been the Index hung.

Larry lifted his arm, reaching to claim the Index. He pulled back his hand just short of the hovering Index. His eyes narrowed as he though about what he was doing. Was he truly certain he could control the Index? Was he capable of using it without the desire for dominance overpowering him? Could he risk the Index falling into the hands of someone who had no desire to control it? Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and retrieved the Icon.

John Call materialized in a flash of light and surveyed the room.

"So you have gathered the Icon. That is the key to the entire Halo weapons system, but it can only be activated by the person who touched the weapon first. If the person, herby called 'reclaimer,' dies then the next person who touches the Icon after the reclaimer's death becomes the next one.

"It is important that you realize the importance of the Halo system, it should not be used unless there is no other choice. In addition, now that you have it the coordinates of the Halo ring and the clans currently on it will be published. Thank you and Have a nice day!"

When Larry opened his eyes, John Call was gone.

The door to the bridge whisked open and Larry slowly walked towards the command center, concentrating, pulling his thoughts together. The five men where still standing guard. Larry spoke,

"Ownage's account has been terminated. Your allegiance belongs to those who would lead you, those who have earned the privilege of leading you. Don't turn your error into a mistake by refusing to correct it." Larry tossed a com unit toward the first man in line. "I would make use of it if I were you."

Larry made his way back towards the shuttle, telling the ACH members about Ownage's deactivation. Many of those who had joined Ownage surrendered their arms, unwilling to fight for a cause that was only carried by their leader, a man who was now dead.


Larry walked into the bridge after making sure the entire rebel forces were disarmed, where he saw a man of average height but of large build standing over the control console to navigation. He looked up when Larry entered.

"So you're Harrod, huh?" He had two HE Pistols fastened to his belt and a few extra magazines that held the HE pistol's 12.7 mm semi-armor-piercing, high-explosive rounds, "I'm Lt. Commander Fury. I was holding off the uprising from the engine room, but when you showed up, that allowed us to break through."

"You're Fury?" Larry asked.

As the Fury nodded, Larry felt the presence of two other people enter the room and turned to see Fox and Tex enter, both looking extremely tired from all the fighting.

Tex and Fox were both extremely happy to see Larry and both rushed over to give him a hug, which proved akward between all the weapons and equipment each carried.

Fury cleared his throat again and all three tuned to look at him, "We do have a problem, I don't know why but I'm reading slipspace and hyperspace ruptures near the edge of the system, lots of ruptures."

Larry groaned and explained, "That is probably the other clans and other such things in DreamLand. They've come for Halo," and he explained about the index and how John Call had alerted everyone in DreamLand as to it's location.

"So it's become a big King of the Hill match?" Lt. Com. Fury asked.

"Yes, sir," Larry said.

"Well we're clearly out gunned," Tex said, "I think it would be unwise to stick around." And she smiled as Fury nodded in agreement.

Fox produced his PDA and said after a long wistle, "I reckon' that we don't got much time to do much of anything," he flashed them his screen and it read "31:23 Minutes Remaining…"

Tex pulled out hers and she groaned, "I have just a little more then Fox."

Larry looked at Fury, "What we need to do is get the remaining CH members off of Halo. They can't activate it without the Index, which I have right here. We need to escape to somewhere else."

Fury nodded and said, "They have shuttles down on the base, I'm going to try and get as much equipment as we can on board the Pride. We can always rebuild else where."

Tex walked over to the console and said, "The ships are from at least three clans at the moment, but they're all fighting each other so that should give us some time to get organized and escape."

Fox walked over to look over her shoulder, "By gum she's right. There's TEK, MI2, and BFM!"

"Do you know what any of those stand for?" Larry asked.

"Nope," Fox said with a shrug.

"I just established contact with Nikita, and she has the flag. They're bringing the last four shuttles and two Blackhawk helicopters along with the rest of CH up with them," he looked up, "Admiral Ben is dead, he was killed by two of the traitors when they spotted him trying to board one of the shuttles, but he killed both before their grenades killed him."

Tex gasped and Fox groaned softly.

"When will they be onboard?" Larry asked softly.

"In about a half hour. In the mean time, why don't you and Fox go explain to the prisoners their options?"

Fox smiled and turned around, hoisting his Springfield sniper rifle over his shoulder, and Larry followed him.


The figure remained unseen in the corner of the room, her clothing allowing her to blend into the shadows. She watched the Jedi leave carefully, she knew that sight did not matter to Force users, she being one herself.

Her orders had been clear, not to let the Jedi die. She never questioned orders, but having a guard for a Jedi seemed like overkill. This did not mean that she was extremely surprised to find out just who the Jedi was: her friend, Larry.

Oh yes, she would watch him closely, but she wanted to know why there was such an interest in him.