Hey guys! Thanks for waiting for this next chapter.

The mood of the story will be different than last time, so be wary of that.

I would like to thank everyone for reading this. It makes me feel good that people in 13 countries can view my work.

Enjoy the chapter!

Edited on 12/22/16. Fixed a few problems with plot progression and lore errors.

Lilith
Somewhere in New Mombasa
A few hours after awakening

"What's the point of all of this anyway?" Lilith askd aloud. Rook did give her, from what she assumed was, a stern face of disapproval.

She thought that her question was one that needed answers though, as all she did after awakening in a dumpster on some foreign world was finding pieces of debris. Although she understood the fact that they held audio logs of some sort, they didn't give her a real insight of what exactly was going on.

They were walking down another one of the city's numerous streets, which looked almost exactly alike. She couldn't complain, however, as she knew that Pandora felt almost bland and boring to her as she spent time on the lawless planet. Added to the fact that the enemies would always charge at her yelling at the top of their lungs, shooting enough bullets to kill the Vault Warrior itself, only not one of them hitting her.

The enemies here, at least, had some strategy. The Runts would act similarly to the Psychos on Pandora; shooting blindly at their target. The only difference was that when their leader was killed, they would all loose hope and just tries to turn them into the alien equivalent of BBQ. The Gladiators had a bit more accuracy than their smaller counterparts, and seemed to be the alien's choice of sharpshooter. They even had excellent accuracy when it came down to it. The Apes, who seemed to be the lead warriors of the alien's, fought with pure rage and did plenty of damage to both Lilith and Rook. She liked to compare them to the Goliaths back on Pandora; as they seemed to rage when shot at with enough ammunition. There was one alien species in particular that was pretty much a walking tank of plasma; she found these the most fun and exhilarating to fight. She named these aliens in particular Goliaths, contrary to the Goliaths on Pandora; these aliens seemed to be the equivalent of a Badass Goliath as they were tough to kill. The only alien that she had seen so far that didn't try to kill her were these floating bags of gas. She couldn't find a better name for them as that's pretty much what they were. Their only purpose to the aliens was to give them upgraded shields to make them tougher to kill in combat. They seemed to be harmless creatures in nature, but Lilith had been past pissed to even care about checking to see if they were friendly or not.

Mainly she was ticked about being stuck on a stupid scavenger hunt in the middle of the night on some unknown world with a soldier that she didn't know, let alone trusting him/her with her life. But, there was another reason that she was mad, but she tried to hide it deep within the recesses of her mind and never tried to let it come to full thought. She knew that she might miss the funeral of Roland. She wanted to be there with her friends and comrades in arms. She wanted to say something, anything really, to Roland one last time. It was her duty to help run the Crimson Raiders along side Roland, now she had to do it with the help of Mordy and the other Vault Hunters, only if she made it out of this alive.

She stared at Rook as he looked like he was going to answer, but then she poured the rage on him. She wasn't even half aware of the words she said to him. However, deep in her heart, she wasn't mad at him, honestly.

As she raged on, his helmet dipped lower and lower in depression and sadness with a tinge of confusion. But at this point she didn't care about how he felt about her situation, she only cared about herself. That was her way of life and that's how she got things done. It was only about five minutes into the rant that she decided to stop.

Then, she stormed off without a word.

Rookie
Occupied City Center
6 hours after main combat drop
En route to Kikonwani Station

The Rookie didn't seem to understand what was going on. It had been quiet ever since they found the Tayari Plaza Beacon. They only had conversation they had were during battle situations, even then, she did most of the talking as he just replied with simple hand signals.

Then the rage hit him like a Covenant Super Carrier.

It all started with Lilith asking why they were even doing this. He gave her a stern look to remind her of the Covenant forces in the area that might be watching them. Then, she went off on him. Yelling at him with a full, loud voice that could probably be heard from here to the Outer Colonies. She kept ranting and ranting about a bunch of things that didn't really make too much sense to him; a planet named Pandora, her friends, and even himself. He was taken back a bit when she started calling him things such as "a stupid mute" or "coward". She also used a wide variety of language, which combined with the strength of each word, would crush any anti-UNSC organization on those words alone.

However, one subject she ranted about seemed to be personal to her, as if she didn't want anyone knowing about it. She began talking about a man named Roland. They seemed to be good friends and maybe had a relationship. But before she could continue on the topic, she decided to storm off into the streets of New Mombasa without him.

'She's going to get herself killed!' He thought franticly.

He stared as she walked away, MA5C in hand, struggling to find a solution to the situation. On one hand, as he had past experience with women with huge tempers, messing with a girl that was pissed at the world wasn't exactly the thing to do, as she might just strangle you until you pass out or worse. Lilith looked as if she could do that with 5 times the intensity. On the other hand, as an experienced soldier, roaming around Covenant-held territory with no backup and no body armor, as she just had civilian clothing on, would guarantee disaster on a silver platter.

So, in attempt to save both himself and Lilith from certain death, he ran after her after shaking off the shock from the initial argument.

However, as he approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, he instantly regretted it.

She turned to him with glowing red eyes that burned straight through his visor. She looked exactly like a demon straight out of his nightmares, or worse….."

Then she spoke, "LEAVE! ME! ALONE! "

He suddenly flew back with the power of a Scorpion Tank and into a nearby wall. He would've been fine with it, until she decided to shoot him with a few rounds of her MA5C Assault Rifle. The Rookie felt a few rounds pierce his left leg and a few on his left arm.

His suit's armor tried to compensate for the damage, but couldn't in time. He started to feel the darkness close in on him. He strained his eyes through the darkness to find Lilith running up to him at full sprint. Instead this time she had the same regular eyes that he found her with, deep with regret.

Then, as he fell into unconsciousness for the second time of the night, she could hear Lilith beginning to apologize with deep sorrow.

1 HOUR LATER

'Where am I?' The Rookie thought to himself as he awoke, 'Better question, how long was I out?'

He struggled to raise his head and body to a point to where he can see his surroundings. Before he could, however, a gentle hand pressured against his chest.

"Stay, you need to heal a bit longer." Lilith's voice rang against the night.

He turned to find her with her arm glowing a soft purple hue. He assumed that was how he was able to regain consciousness within an hour. Usually, with an impact similar to the one he endured and with gunshot wounds to his arm and leg, he would be out for the better half of a month. But one question remained in his mind: How was she able to do that?

As if she read his mind she replied, "Before you try and ask, I am a Sire; a human with capabilities beyond anyone else."

The Rookie lowered his head back down onto the ground. A quick look around showed that he ended up near Kikowani Station, where he intended to go in the first place. He once again tried to get up, this time not being forced down by Lilith.

"You are one hard-headed bastard, aren't you?" she remarked.

As he got up, he shrugged away from Lilith due to the previous encounter.

"Look," she began, "I'm sorry for what happened back there. I just got fed up with being stuck in a place that I don't know all to well without my friends. Well, I guess you could be my friend, since you saved me from those aliens and gave me a weapon. But, I do miss my home, where I come from. And to top it all of, I just got out of captivity and lost someone very close to me. I want to ask you something: If I help you with whatever it is that you are trying to do, you must help me return to my home. Deal?"

The offer surprised the Rookie. He didn't expect her to open up to him like that, considering the fact that they have only been together for only a few hours. He considered the offer for a moment.

'Seems like a fair trade to me' The Rookie thought to himself.

'But, she might try to double-cross me or something, I don't want to end up like Georgia' The Rookie's mind countered while thinking back to the report of the missing ONI operative lost to deep space.

'How would you end up like Georgia in this case?' The Rookie thought.

'For all you know, she could probable launch your stupid ass into space and probably land on that Halo ring that the UNSC found a few weeks ago!' The Rookie's mind countered again.

Ignoring the outrageous counters in his mind, The Rookie nodded his head in agreement to Lilith's deal, seeing as it was a fair bargain.

"Good." she replied, "I also found some of that bio-foam stuff on one of the pillars here. It could be put to good use." Lilith handed a half-empty can of the medical gel to The Rookie. Looking at the bottle with a bit of disgust, he mounted the bottle on his belt for ease of use. As he did this action, his helmet's radio transponder cracked to life. He adjusted the volume of the transponder to allow Lilith to listen in as well.

'This is Captain Veronica Dare, can anyone hear me?' the transmission started.

'If anyone is listening, I'm in the Superintendent's Data Center under the city. I request immediate backup. Over.'

A Covenant Phantom paused over the duo's position before switching on its searchlight and scurrying into the night.

"Looks like we better get underground before they do." Lilith said with determination as she readied her MA5C.

As the Rookie turned to look back at her, he noticed a smudge on his visor in the shape of a pair of lips. He quickly turned toward Lilith to find her giggling with a bit of blush on her face.

"Let's get going." Lilith replied between laughs.

I would like to thank you guys for reading my story. If you enjoyed, stay tuned for more to come. My new story drops on September 17th so be watching out for that.

RNG OUT!