(A/N) Hey guys, sorry that this is going up slightly late, so much for keeping to the update times right? Didn't get home from college until around midnight last night, which kinda left me with little time to spend updating, but here's the chapter, less than twelve hours late! And let's face it, I'm sure you guys have gotten used to the slightly late updates at this stage. Anyway, here we go, another great North chapter from the ever-brilliant StormBlue, and I hope you all enjoy this ass much as I did, because hey, it's pretty damn awesome! Haven't had a chance to see the new RvB episode and probably won't get to until tomorrow, but hopefully it'll have been awesome!

Enjoy!


Chapter Ninety-Three - Just a Man

Agent North Dakota

Written by StormBlue


"When you jumped in here, you were my enemy and I was afraid of you. But you're just a man like me, and I killed you. Forgive me, comrade." - Maxwell Anderson


The door was kicked open, revealing the frightened faces of a family of four within. North held a shotgun ready, but not up fully. Three of the fifteen UNSC soldiers that were accompanying the team of Freelancers stalked into the room, their own weapons raised threateningly at the family, making North scowl. South walked in front of him and he finally entered, glaring at the soldier that was shouting at the poor people. Instead of answering his questions, they just whimpered and shrank away from him, the mother clutching her two teenage boys while the father stood in front of them all. North didn't know if they even spoke English.

"We've got this level. You go upstairs," South said, and North nodded.

He moved forward and started climbing the stairs slowly, alert. North heard a creak of wood from behind him and looked back to see a soldier following him to the second level. Facing the front again, he held his shotgun up, he looked around the room. There was no one there. At least, not in plain sight. There was always the possibility that the Insurrectionists were hiding, waiting to ambush them. He motioned for the soldier to go one way while he went the other, and together they checked the room. North moved into a bedroom next.

The Insurrectionists were hiding out in this village as well as the neighbouring ones, and North and his team had been sent to hunt them all down. However, he felt like a common terrorist from the way they were treating the villagers.

This wasn't what he had signed up for.

The bedroom was clear. No one behind the curtains, under the bed, or hiding in the closet. He was about to exit the room when he heard a small noise. It had come from a corner, and upon investigation, all that was there was a small chest. Too small for a full-grown man wearing body-armour to squeeze into. Kneeling down anyway, he undid the clasps and slowly opened the lid. The wide eyes of two small children greeted him, taking him by surprise.

The older one-only about four years old-held his little sister closer as she whimpered, and North realized that he was scaring them. He lifted his hands up to his helmet and pulled it off, offering them a comforting smile.

"North Dakota?" asked the voice of the soldier that had come up the stairs with him.

North held a finger up to his lips, motioning the children to be quiet before he turned his head slightly and yelled an "All clear!" back to the soldier. He gently put the lid back down and stood up, walking away and placing his helmet back on, hearing it seal shut as he did so. He nodded at the soldier and descended the stairs.

"There's no one here," he said to the others as he came into the main room downstairs, where a soldier still had the poor family pressed into the corner with his weapon. When South returned and reported the same for the rest of the building, they turned and left. Out of the corner of his eye, North saw the frantic mother rush up the stairs as soon as they were gone, and he smiled slightly.

Looking around, he found Cal waiting in the street, battle rifle at the ready if any Innies decided to show themselves and attempt to run, or to assist anyone that had found something. North himself had his sniper rifle on his back in case he needed it, but the situation would most likely call more for a shorter ranged weapon, hence the shotgun he carried.

Ark and Georgia exited the building across from the one North and South had just scouted. "No one in that one," Georgia said.

"This is going too slowly," Cal grumbled, growing impatient. "We should split up."

North shook his head, uncertain. "I would rather not be cut off from each other if anyone comes across a group too large for just a few of us."

"Cal's right. We need to cover more ground," South growled, obviously displeased at admitting that first part.

They turned to Ark, their appointed leader, who simply shrugged. "North's got a point, but it would probably be a good idea," he agreed. "We've got a lot of buildings to cover. Best we get this done as quickly as we can."

Cal nodded triumphantly, then joined their leader after Ark gestured for Cal to go with him, and the two headed in a different direction, Ark ordering nine of their UNSC escort to follow him, leaving six of them with South, Georgia, and North.

"Next house?" Georgia offered with a smile underneath his helmet. The task they had was long and arduous, with not much exciting happening, searching each individual living and working space, but they had to do it. They were soldiers.

North nodded, and gestured. "South you take that one; Georgia and I will go in this one," he said, and they went into the respective buildings, most of the remaining UNSC soldiers following the Freelancers while a few stayed in the streets. Like those before this one, the door was kicked down and the frightened screams of an elderly couple came from inside, and he walked in to see a similar sight to the one before it.

The couple was ushered out of the house by two of the soldiers, and North and Georgia went off to the kitchen together, and a silence was between the two as they searched for Insurrectionists. The kitchen clear, they moved on to the living area, where Georgia searched one side and North did the other.

"It's like one of those horror movies," Georgia muttered. "Where you're just waiting for them to pop out at you, you know?"

"Yeah," North replied. "Except we're trained soldiers with the advantage over them."

Just as he said that, he looked over at the green Freelancer just in time to see a green and tan armoured Insurrectionist jump out at him from behind a couch. Georgia didn't even have time to look around before he was tackled and his rifle was knocked out of his grasp, flying across the floor. North immediately went into action to help his teammate, but the next thing he knew, a kick in the gut sent him crashing into the wall. There was another one to his right, as apparently the two Insurrectionists had come up with an ambush as a last resort.

The Insurrectionist knocked North's weapon away, moving surprisingly quick. They appeared to be going for a silent approach, so as to not call attention from the other soldiers, and he didn't hear more than muted sounds from the other two. North had to take care of this guy quickly so he could help Georgia out. He blocked the next blow and grabbed the Innie's wrist, twisting the arm behind his back, causing it to wrench painfully.

His attacker kicked his leg, causing North to stumble and the Insurrectionist to break out of his grip. He twisted and threw a punch at the Innie's gut, and was rewarded by the Insurrectionist giving a slight pause to the battle, and North threw his body weight at him, crushing the man between himself and the wall. The green and tan striped helmet fell to the floor.

"Hey, you wanna know what this does?" Georgia suddenly asked, though his voice was a bit strained, and North couldn't see what he was holding. He hoped it wasn't anything explosive. Whatever Georgia had beeped a few times.

However, that had caught the attention of the two Insurrectionists, giving North the second he needed to aim a kick at the Insurrectionist, diving for his shotgun while his opponent recovered from the blow. When the Innie looked up again, it was at the barrel of the shotgun. With a glance at the man's wide, fearful blue eyes, he pulled the trigger, grimacing at the resulting splatter.

He quickly turned back to Georgia, who might have had the upper hand a moment ago, but was quickly losing it. His opponent was manoeuvring himself on top of Georgia, pinning him to the ground. North leapt forward, knocking into the Insurrectionist and tumbling with him off the mechanic. They grappled for a moment before he heard the sound of an assault rifle, and suddenly the pressure the Insurrectionist had been asserting on North turned to dead weight. With a groan, he heaved the body off of himself and stood up, looking at his teammate.

"You alright?" he asked Georgia worriedly.

Georgia looked at the rifle in his hands, then at the body. "That was one big guy," he remarked. "I'm fine. I'm glad I didn't hit you with this thing. Wait...I didn't, right?"

North chuckled. "No. Nice work there. So what did that thing do?" he asked as Georgia picked up a device from the floor.

Georgia shrugged. "You know, I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything yet. Just brought it along on the off-chance that I could finish it on the fly or the parts might prove useful." He tucked the object away. "I guess it needs more tinkering."

Shaking his head at the mechanic, he smiled and reached up to his helmet. "We've got two Insurrectionists down in here," he reported to the others.

"Good," Ark replied. "Any casualties?"

North looked around at the UNSC soldiers that had arrived at the tail end of the fight, who were now beginning to go back to scoping the house again.

"Nope," Georgia said into the radio. "Everyone in here is just fine. Well, you know, except for the two Innies, who kind of aren't."

Retrieving his shotgun, North continued on to the next room, and soon the rest of the residence was declared empty, and they exited the building. It appeared that South was still in the other house, and Georgia and the UNSC soldiers moved on to the next one. However, North stayed in the street a minute longer, but as he turned to continue the search for the Innie's, he heard a gunshot from in the house where his sister was.

Without hesitation, he ran inside, quickly going to the back where he could hear thumping, as from a struggle. He entered the room in time to see South standing over a lone Insurrectionist, her boot on his back, pinning him to the ground. As he watched, she gripped his arm in her hands, and with a sickening pop and crack, the shoulder came out of his socket at the same time his wrist was broken. The Innie's yell of pain was cut off as his twin had her pistol out and shot him with it.

While the sight was a gruesome one that made North's stomach twist, relief flooded him when he saw that she was the one that was left standing, rather than the Insurrectionist. It was then that he saw the other body in the room, with the letters UNSC branded on the armour. North lowered his head in respect to the fallen soldier, before looking at his sister again. It took her a moment to realize he was there, and she holstered the pistol. He stepped back to allow her out of the room, pausing her as she passed. "You alright?"

She nodded once. "Yeah. He got the jump on me, is all." She reported the deaths over the radio as she left while more soldiers entered the room behind the twins.

The next few houses passed without incident, other than Ark reporting another downed Insurrectionist, and the soldier the Innie had taken out. They continued to bust into houses and North made kind gestures to the families within, but there was only so much he could do. While they were scouting the second floor of another home, one soldier was rough with a villager that was found hiding in a bedroom. Scowling, North made to have a word with the him when the click of the radio interrupted him.

"Found two of them!" Cal's voice suddenly sounded, and North started.

"Do you need back-up?" he asked worriedly. No answer. North turned to go back down the stairs, when Ark finally responded.

"We've got it under control!"

North didn't relax. There was something about the tone in Ark's voice that didn't seem right. Looking over at South, he saw that she had noticed it as well, and she gestured to his sniper rifle. He nodded and handed her his shotgun so his hands would be free and walked over to the window. Taking a quick glance at the outside of the building, he grabbed the side and swung himself out, and from there grabbed the roof, pulling himself up.

From that vantage point, it only took him a quick look around to see Ark standing in the middle of a street a distance away from their current location, facing something that North couldn't see. It wasn't a casual pose, however. His posture was tense, ready to spring, yet held back. Silently cursing the houses that obstructed his view, he looked around. To his right was another building that was slightly higher than the one he was currently on, and it had a better angle.

Taking a slight running start, North jumped the distance between the two roofs, landing in a crouch and quickly moved to the side where he could see a crowd of people on the street, and he could see both Ark and Cal now. Pulling the sniper out, he used the scope to get a better view of what was going on. There were a couple of UNSC soldiers on the ground, and he couldn't tell if they were dead or just knocked out, and there was an Insurrectionist body on the ground. But hadn't Cal said there were two of them?

He saw the other Innie close to Cal and Ark, and yet...none of them were attacking. Were they talking? Unlikely...North readjusted the focus and saw the reason why. The Insurrectionists was gripping a sobbing teenage girl and was holding a pistol to her head. North saw what he presumed to be her family waiting a bit away, begging him to let her go. So that's why Ark had told them to stay. They were trying to protect the girl.

With North's position, the Innie was at a sudden disadvantage, not knowing that the purple Freelancer was watching him. It could all be over in one shot. However, he hesitated. One shot was all it would take for him to take out the Innie, but one shot was all it would take for the girl to get killed. Watching the situation, he had an idea.

"We'll make it two shots, then," he muttered, and adjusted his rifle ever so slightly, taking an extra second to make sure he wouldn't miss. He pulled the trigger and the Innie dropped the gun, pulling his bloodied hand back in pain. Another shot rang out before he could complete the movement however, and he fell to the ground, a bullet lodged in his skull.

The villagers stood in shock for a moment before realizing that while the girl was now covered in blood, it belonged to the Insurrectionist rather than her, and she was unhurt. North felt warmth rise in his chest as she rushed to her family and they held each other, sobbing in happiness. Through the scope, he saw Cal and Ark exchange glances, before Cal reached to his helmet.

"Was that you, North?"

"I've got your back," North replied. "Nice work in keeping her safe, guys."

He placed the rifle on his back again, and made his way back down to floor level, where South was already waiting and tossed him back his shotgun. The search continued and it wasn't long before North saw Ark and Cal's team approaching, apparently getting to the last of the section of the village they had taken. They would meet up soon and then move on to the surrounding areas. They had lost a few of the soldiers that had accompanied them, but all the Freelancers themselves didn't have more than minor injuries.

Moving ahead of South and Georgia, he saw Ark enter a small building by himself, but North wasn't much concerned. Ark could take care of himself, plus he had plenty of backup waiting outside. He walked up to one of the soldiers from the UNSC.

"What's your name, soldier?" he asked.

The man seemed taken aback by North's question. "Uh, J-Johnson, sir. Joe Johnson," he replied.

North shook his hand in an act of friendliness. "How's our progress?"

Johnson thought on that for a moment. "We have seven downed Insurrectionists with only three casualties from our side, sir. I would say we were doing pretty good, but..." he lowered his head. "They were good men," he finished.

North placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yes they were. We'll make sure they get home so their families can pay their respects."

Johnson looked up at North. "You're...not like I imagined you guys at all," he said, a tone of surprise in his voice.

North smiled. "How did you imagine us?" He was curious.

Johnson shrugged sheepishly. "I don't know. I guess...you guys are supposedly super soldiers, so I think of you more as Spartans or something. Those guys are meant to be more like machines than actual people. And you're actually…nice."

North just chuckled a little. "Well, while some of us are nicer than others, all the others are pretty decent. As for the super-soldier part, that's what I hear we're supposed to be. But I'm just a man. We're only human, and I think it's important to not lose sight of who you are or what you're fighting for, which happens only too commonly in a war."

North looked away as he said this. Only human. Even though they had different beliefs and ideals, that's all the Insurrectionists were. That's why the Covenant and the Insurrection were two vastly different enemies. The Covenant were superior to humanity in many ways and they were no doubt the bigger threat, but the Insurrectionists had all started at the same place everyone else had. Even though North had a clear view of what he was fighting for, to protect the innocent, and even after all the terrible things he had seen the Insurrection do, that's what North thought of whenever he looked into their eyes and ended their lives.

Despite all that, he wouldn't stop fighting them, however. Humanity needed soldiers like him to help keep everyone safe, and that's exactly what North planned to do.

Johnson had taken a moment to admire his surroundings. "This is a very beautiful place. My girl back home, Fritzy, would love to be here. Byzantium was always one of her favourite planets."

North nodded distractedly, suddenly noticing that Ark hadn't exited the house he had gone into yet, and was slowly becoming aware of noises coming from within. He left Johnson and started walking up to the house, alert. It sounded like...voices? North couldn't make out the words, but there was definitely some frantic whispering. When the noises changed to what sounded like some kind of struggle, North rushed forward to the aid of his teammate.

However, as soon as he approached the building and was about to enter, the door opened and Ark stepped forward, closing it behind him and looking at North.

"Hey, is everything alright?" North asked with confusion in his voice, stepping back.

Ark nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine." He started walking away.

North hesitated, looking back at the closed door. Finally, he turned and followed the coral Freelancer and joined him and Cal in the next building. He went through the now-familiar motions of scouting the rooms, checking every possible hiding place, shouting "Clear!" when he didn't find anything and listening to the others doing the same. When nothing was found, they regrouped in the main room where two women stood with a couple of children. North was looking at them, hoping that they hadn't been traumatized by the whole experience and making sure they were all fine.

"This one's clear, let's move on!" one of the soldiers called.

One of the women, somewhere in her twenties with a small frame and dark hair, returned his gaze, and he nodded slightly to assure her that everything was alright. However, she shook her own head slightly in return, and her eyes flickered to the floor. North was about to just pass it off when he realized she was trying to tell him something. That the worried look wasn't just because of the Freelancers and UNSC soldiers in her home. She kept looking between him and the floor, he looked down at the intricately decorated rug laid out on the wooden floor.

He caught Cal's arm before he walked out the door. "Wait," North said.

"What?" Cal asked.

North didn't say anything, but instead looked around. There was a little ragdoll sprawled in the corner to North's left, so walking over, he picked it up and saw that it must have belonged to the little girl on the other side of the room. He could tell that Cal was watching him questioningly, but North ignored him. Walking across the room, he made sure to walk across the rug as he did so, listening to the thumping of his boots as he did so.

He knelt down and handed the doll to the child. "Is this yours?" he asked gently.

She gingerly took it from him, hesitant at first. North turned and looked back at Cal to see if he had heard it too, but Cal was already waving to the guys outside, calling them back, but doing so in a way that told them to be quiet. Indeed, Cal had also heard the one thump on the wood that had sounded different. That sounded hollow.

Standing up and nodding to the woman who had alerted him in thanks, he gestured for them to leave the building, and they complied. When the civilians were safely away, North and Cal, joined with South, surrounded the rug. Five other soldiers were waiting just outside, ready if they needed help. Whoever was underneath knew they had been found by now, but there nothing to help that. The rug was pulled away and Cal knelt down at the latch, looking around to see if everyone was ready.

With a groan from both him and the trapdoor, it was lifted up with one sudden movement. With a flash of green and tan, four Insurrectionists leapt out of the small hollow beneath the floor. Instead of instantly firing, the three Freelancers sprang into action. The first one was downed when South unleashed a series of blows at him, ending with a knee to the sensitive area, leaving him still conscious but rolling around on the ground in agony. Cal wrestled the rifle from another and after they grappled about for a moment, Cal came out on top and finished with a punch to the head.

The third one lurched at North, but he sidestepped and the Innie went past him, ramming his shoulder into the wall. He finished his movement by swinging the butt of his shotgun at the back of the man's head, but the swing was halted by the last one, who kicked North to the side. Rolling to his knees, North quickly raised his arms to block the fist of the first one that had attacked him, then reached out and grabbed his legs, causing him to fall to the ground. He grabbed his shotgun and slammed it onto the Insurrectionist's helmet, and he immediately went limp.

Looking for the last one, he saw him manage to push South away and make a break for it, raising a pistol to shoot at the UNSC soldiers in his way. North fired his shotgun and the Innie stopped in his tracks. Looking to his right, the wall was littered by holes from the blast, and everyone in the room-including the Innie-was surprised that he was still alive. North hadn't been aiming to kill, but then again, he hadn't really had the time to aim. Still, it had paused the Insurrectionist, and he looked around him in despair before throwing down his weapon in surrender.

Panting, North climbed to his feet and started gathering the fallen weapons so the Insurrectionists didn't try to pull anything with them, and with a tinge of amazement he noticed that the pistol the last one had been holding-that he had raised at the soldiers and had been ready to fire-was out of bullets. He handed the extra weapons to Johnson, who had come to assist, and looked around.

Two unconscious and two not, there were four Insurrectionists that were still alive and had been captured.

The Director would be pleased.