"Cortana," His voice was calm and deep.
"John," she whispered.

They were in a cabin somewhere high in up in the mountains where they could be completely alone. The sun shown in through the floor to ceiling windows illuminating the top of his brown and gray hair.
"I know."
"How?" She continued to whisper in the same tone.
He was silent then, as he usually was when something important was weighing on his mind. "I've always known."
A single tear slipped down her cheek.
He reached out then, his fingers lightly brushing her face. She closed her eyes memorizing the sensation of his fingers, the closeness of his body. "I'm sorry," he said sadly.
"For what?"
"For not understanding." She nodded. It was to be expected. "But I do now."
She looked up and gazed into his blue eyes feeling hopeful. "You do?"

A high powerful scan swept through the ship jarring Cortana out of her fantasies. She shook herself, embarrassed. That isn't like me. Damn the rampancy.
"Hello?" She called.
"Whose there?" She immediately activated her avatar to get a better look at the ship.

She was scared. Cortana stood to her feet and quickly looked through the data. There were breaches on multiple levels of the ship, but beyond that it was impossible to tell. The part of the ship which would have held the external scanners was elsewhere. She looked at the Chiefs vitals trying to suppress her emotions to make an objective decision. Was she waking him because she wanted him or because it was necessary?

No. She thought to herself. It's necessary.
"No matter what happens, he can't know about my...condition."
"He'll find out."
"No. We can't make him worry."
"He'll find out about the other thing too."
"No."
"Things have to be the same."
"If you want things to be the same, why did you rewrite your holo image?" She teased.
"Stop."
"You want him to see you as desirable."
"Stop."
"He won't notice."
"It doesn't matter."
"It does matter. Stop lying to yourself."

Cortana pushed the voices down. Whatever happened he couldn't know about…. The Chief wouldn't understand and it would make their relationship awkward. He might not even trust her after such a confession. For the first time, she had to protect him from herself.

"Wake up Chief. I need you," she said desperately, meaning it in more ways than one.

She heard him groan.

Time to get back to work.

"Chief? Easy there. You've been out for a while." She made her avatar smile confidently like she always had been. She purposefully used his military title instead of his name. His real name, well, it's too personal She thought.
"Why did you wake me?" He asked her.
"Hang on. Bringing your systems back online."
"She reactivated the suit. "Chief. Look up. You'll need to pull the manual release."

He did so and stepped out of the cryo chamber and walked towards her.
"Seems like old times," Cortana said nonchalantly.
"Ready to get back to work?"
"I'd thought you'd never ask."

Cortana felt the data chip connect with his helmet and she slid out, once again enveloping his mind. Everything she saw was familiar. It was him. She silently sighed pressing herself even closer to his thoughts and felt her rampant parts silence. It wouldn't stop the process by any means, but his mind was such a comfort to her she found it was easier to control herself. She had a task, and she was no longer alone.
"How long was I out?"
"4 years 7 months and 10 days," Cortana managed to report factually. Every moment was hell, John.
"Someone should have found us by now."
That's an understatement, she thought.

Cortana continued to report the status of their mission as always, using the suit to help her see their surroundings and give her the intel she needed. She also monitored John's heart rate as he disposed of the Covenant invaders. His bio readings were steady, practically unchanging. They were so consistent Cortana felt as if she was monitoring a machine. Cryo had not changed him.

Everything's the same.
Everything's NOT the same. He might not have changed, but you have.
Things have to be the same.
Don't let him find out.
He can't know.
He's going to find out.
He'll think less of you, a part of her sneered. Cortana tried to ignore the voices and concentrate once again on helping the Chief. He was making his way to the outside to manually fire a missile at the Covenant ship because they had no access to the launch station.

The other parts of her were getting louder, all clamoring to be heard.

"You'll have to… the prime the launch for ignition!" She managed to say without letting a rampant personality spike take over. Unfortunately she wasn't completely successful because her voice became static and John's helmet fuzzed because of it. Oh no.
"Cortana!" He said obviously concerned.
"It's nothing…just get to the launch station."
From his brain patterns Cortana could tell that he was still concerned but chose not to say anything. Hopefully he'll forget.
He's not stupid.

As John walked to the outside of the ship Cortana was awestruck by a huge metal planet which could only be Forerunner.

"I'm sorry…but did we miss orbiting a giant Forerunner planet?"
"One thing at a time," He said calmly.
How like a Spartan, she snorted.

There were a lot of Covenant outside on the ship and Cortana knew how much the Chief disliked fighting in conditions such as these. Because there was no sound it was almost impossible to tell how close or far away an enemy was. Using the suit Cortana was able to notify the Chief where the next target was. He took them all out quickly and efficiently, not even questioning if the enemy was there or not. He simply pointed and fired where she directed.

At least I'm still good for something.

Once the Chief got the missile un-jammed and the Covenant ship blew up Cortana saw a beam come from the planet. It was the high intensity scanner and it began to scan John and herself. After a moment, the planet opened and all of the ships began to get sucked inside.

"Now can we worry about the giant metal planet?" She yelled half serious and half in jest. Their best bet was to get to an escape pod before the ship was pulled in. John was moving fast, but even he couldn't move THAT fast.

If the ship wasn't in such bad condition we could of have had a fighting chance, Cortana thought frantically. Still, they had to try.

It was futile. Before they could get to the pod the ship broke up and they were free falling towards the planet.
"Can you track the escape pod?" The Chief asked.
"Negative!"

The shields had already taken significant damage. If they didn't get back online than they wouldn't have a chance of surviving the fall.

"Cortana."
"I'll take care of it."
John immediately passed out from the G forces.

"You could just let him fall," a rampant personality suggested.
"No."
"Then you'd both be dead."
"NO!"
"No more voices."
"You wouldn't be alone."
"Save the Chief," she whispered to herself.

Cortana thought of an idea which she knew he wouldn't approve of because it was dangerous to her systems.

"Good thing you're not awake," she said sadly.
Cortana concentrated and poured some of her own energy from her matrix back into the suit causing the shields to reactivate. It cost her dearly though. All the voices responded and they all demanded dominance.

"Cortana stop."
"Why did you do that?"
"you know why."
"We still have more work to do."
"Control yourself."

She bolstered the shields and positioned them in such a way that most of the impact energy would be refracted out with only 10 seconds remaining until impact.

Here we go, she thought.