Author's Note: So my internet at home decided to crap out, and there's no viable way to fix it until I'm back in the States in a month. In the meantime, I'll try my best to get updates out through other means. There may or may not be some delays, depending how things go. But I'll keep writing. :)

Chapter Eight: Parting Gift

Matthew was still standing just outside the club when I emerged, right where I left him. He looked anxious loitering there in his borrowed UNSC Marine fatigues without insignia as he waited for me to show up. I could tell he was just as nervous as I was about being in potentially hostile territory on our own – despite the fact that just a couple short months ago, he'd considered this his home.

I saw him visibly relax when I came into view.

"Oh, good," he said, licking his lips as he pushed himself off the side of the building. "You're back. Now we can leave."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Did something happen?"

"No, I just…I don't want to get seen here by anybody I used to know. If they find out I've switched sides…"

"Right." I let out a sigh. "Well, looks like we're both persona non grata here, kiddo. Let's get moving before the rebs decide they won't let us go quietly. Just walk normally."

We started off back in the direction of the Pelican, still several minutes out, weapons concealed or slung to show whoever might be watching that we had no intention of using them unless pressed. I figured both of us were resisting the urge to move toward our ride out as fast as possible, though I knew it wouldn't do in the face of the locals if it looked like we'd done something wrong; Hayden had told me they had enough gripes about the UNSC as it was, and I didn't want to add to their list. I just kept my eyes scanning the streets ahead as usual, which I didn't think anyone would find odd for a Marine officer of my rank. It was an instinct anyone who'd been in combat before would share.

Eventually Matthew spoke again.

"How did it go in there, Nat?" he asked.

"Not bad, but not as well as I'd hoped," I replied. Then I snorted. "I haven't dropped dead yet, so that's something." I ran a hand through my hair, feeling suddenly odd and naked without my helmet, also left behind in the bird. "But it looks like I'm not going to get the truce I wanted, and I can't afford to have us fighting on multiple fronts right now. We've already got the elusive Storm and Prometheans to deal with, and that's more than enough."

My brother-in-law screwed up his face. "Prometheans?"

"What we fought outside the ruins."

"Oh." He frowned. "I'm guessing that's not good."

"Nope." I glanced over at him and noticed that after the couple battles he'd fought in since I found him near Outpost Columbia, he seemed a little older than his nineteen years now. "By the way, make sure you keep what we saw down there to yourself. Don't talk about it with your brother, either. Will doesn't know about the portals yet."

Matthew looked confused. "I thought you told him everything."

"I do when it deals with us personally, but this is separate from that – and bigger. I can't help you knowing because you were there, but I'm trying to keep a tight lid on this knowledge for now. It'll come out soon enough. Till then, I made a command decision that it's need-to-know. That extends to my husband, too." I sighed a second time. "I can't be a good leader and play favorites, Matt. He already gets access to more than he should just because of the position I'm in. But this he'll have to find out at the same time everyone else does, for his own good."

"You know he's not going to like that," Matthew muttered.

"I know. But I don't want him to worry even more about me and you being on the ground, or how all this is going to pan out. It's the same reason I'm keeping this info from the rest of the unit, too."

"You think morale's going to take a dive."

I gave him a half-smile. "You're a sharp kid, Matt. Yeah. That's exactly what I want to avoid. Wouldn't you be scared if you knew your enemies were able to reinforce indefinitely at a moment's notice, right under your nose?"

The younger Hawk sighed. "Can I ask you something, Natalie?"

"Shoot."

"Are you scared?"

The pointblank question caught me off-guard, although I wasn't sure why. It was the natural progression for a kid as intuitive as Willis's baby brother. Another reason I thought he'd make a good addition to the Marines once we got back home and he could officially enlist, as he'd told me he hoped to do. For now, though, we were all stuck here on Khan.

"I haven't survived this long because I'm fearless, kiddo," I finally answered. "I'd be crazy if I said I could take the heat all the time and not feel a thing. I just know how to work with it. Fear can be good sometimes, keep you sharp and alert against your enemies – as long as you don't let it take over." I gripped the strap of my rifle harder as we walked. "My hope is that by the time word does get out, we'll be in a better position where we won't have to worry so much about the implications. That's why I wanted our relationship with the locals established today, I want our new ship to get in, and I want to know exactly what's going on on the island before we make our move. If you're well prepared, things don't seem as impossible anymore." I gave him a look then and flashed him a small grin. "Chin up, Matt. Finding the ruins was only the beginning, kid."

The last time I'd felt a bullet whizz past my ear was probably never, given the fact that in the field, I almost always wore my helmet for protection. Out here, though, slightly dressed down for the meeting with Mayor Javier Laraza as a show of good faith, I was without the electronic systems and security afforded to me by my equipment. So when I felt and heard the displacement of the air right by head, it damn well startled me.

But I also reacted fast.

"Watch it!" I yelled at Matthew as I suddenly barreled into his side and shoved him into a nearby alley. The kid stumbled a bit, caught off-guard by my quick action, and almost started to protest. But he soon realized what I was doing and quickly positioned himself beside me at the corner of the street, leaning against the building for cover and straining to see the shooter like I was. The shot had come from somewhere behind us…and I was pretty sure I knew who it might be.

"Where are they?" the younger Hawk asked, looking just over my shoulder. "I don't see anybody."

I was already aiming down my rifle's sights, DMR in hand. "They're there. Keep your eyes open."

I went into a crouch then so Matthew could have a better vantage point as he brought his pistol up while he stood, and I could make myself a smaller target as I inched over closer to the exposed street. Another shot rang out and a bullet bit into the side of the brick and mortar structure, puffs of rock bursting into the air close to my face. I shut my eyes tight and glanced away, then pulled on my sunglasses to compensate.

It was still fairly early in the morning, so my view with the glasses was dark, but it did the job of keeping my eyes clear of debris. Besides, the sun was just a few minutes from breaking over the horizon now anyway. Another beautiful day in fucking paradise, I thought to myself.

Standing above me, I could almost sense my brother-in-law's apprehension, so I said, "Matt, don't worry about taking a shot back. I packed both guns with non-lethals on the ride out from Qamar. You won't kill anyone."

I took my own advice then and fired off a quick burst in the direction of the shots, if nothing else than to make the shooter jumpy and keep the bastard on his toes. I knew it wasn't a skilled sniper as the one who'd drilled me twice through the back about a month ago, because if that were the case we'd both already be dead. Regardless, I'd been shot by Jackals that time, not human rebels – although they had been working together. I kept my aim steady and waited for the shooter to mess up and show himself.

Luck finally came our way when I saw something move in the distance, out from behind a building same as we were. It seemed Matthew saw him at the same time, because he fired off four rounds from my sidearm and sent the man scurrying back behind cover. I tapped on my brother-in-law's leg to get his attention.

"Now's our chance, Matt," I said to him, gesturing to the other side of the street. "Let's move and see if we can't nail this guy."

I got up on my haunches and took a second to check the street again, then, staying crouched, bolted for the stone column on the opposite side. I was about a third of the way there when I felt something tear harshly into my left arm. I winced and let out a rough growl, momentarily slowing, but kept running till I was safely behind cover again.

Matthew was hot on my heels, his deep brown eyes suddenly wide as he came to a halt and dropped beside me.

"Jesus, Nat. You're bleeding."

I gritted my teeth against the pain and waved my good hand at him dismissively. "We need to…get this shooter out of the picture first. Don't worry about it."

"Okay."

Willis's little brother got up again from our new cover and tried to track the shooter. It pissed me off to no end that it took only one to get us into this position, but without the aid of electronics, it was a mess trying to search for him in the still-dark early morning streets from far away. I clamped my hand for a moment over my gushing wound, where the bullet had grazed me, then took a deep breath and let go. It was time to finish this.

Bringing my DMR to bear once more, I zoomed in with the scope and pressed my face close to the weapon. I checked up and down the streets ahead of us, knowing for sure that our target had moved by now, and then I spotted him again. Rattling off a rapid burst, I followed it up quickly with three more for good measure, hoping my rounds found purchase.

I was rewarded with the sound of a pained shout and watched through the scope as the target finally fell to the ground. I didn't even feel bad this time about firing at a fellow human being; he'd tried to kill me first, and I wasn't the one packing lethal heat. I knew the man was safely down and unable to hurt us, but not dead.

To that end, I turned to Matthew fast, tugging on his shoulder with my good hand. "Matt, we need to get back to that Pelican, now. That might not've been the only one they sent after us."

Much to my surprise, instead of moving right away, Matthew just stood there for a minute longer, staring off in the direction of the incapacitated and moaning figure several tens of meters in front of us.

"Natalie…that shooter wasn't a guy. Did you hear her scream?"

Truth be told, I hadn't noticed in the moment. But as I looked out at the downed figure in the distance again, I remembered that she'd sounded different.

"So it wasn't Laraza," I murmured.

That left me perplexed for a moment, but not long enough to stick around. I pulled on my brother-in-law's uniform collar to get him going, and we jogged the rest of the way to the Pelican, weapons in hand all the way this time till we arrived at the spot.

Using my good arm, I banged hard on the back hatch and yelled at Captain Heat in lieu of a radio hail. "Heat, open up! It's us! We need to bug out!"

"Got it, Colonel!" came the reply from the cockpit.

It was as we were loading up into the troop bay with the Pelican already lifting off that the pain suddenly hit me even harder. I winced again in my seat and gripped my bleeding bicep with my right hand, trying to stem the blood flow. I wanted to pull off my uniform jacket to check out the damage, but knew I probably shouldn't till we were on the island again and I could go see Doc. In the meantime, I started to sweat from the effort of keeping the pain to myself, and Matthew glanced over at me with an increasingly worried look.

"Natalie? Are you sure you're okay?" he asked me.

"Yeah, kid," I said through gritted teeth. "I'll be…fine. I've had…much worse than this before."

To keep my mind occupied and off the pain during the flight, I thought again of the woman I'd shot in the street just now. I knew without a doubt she'd been a rebel, otherwise she would've had no reason to rattle off a series of rounds at a UNSC Marine and her escort.

I also knew that even if it hadn't been Mayor Laraza personally who'd been after me, it was a damn good bet that he'd been the one to send the rebel on her errand.