Location: Celestina's office, Starwave Base, Mars
December 31st, 2552
11:46am

Death hugged his beloved as-tall-as-him scythe hold to his chest as he waited patiently outside of Celestina's office for Jun. Without a face, nobody could tell that he was extremely upset right now.

Jun exited Celestina's office, wanting to let her calm down for a while before he would return to her. He noticed Death's body language, the way he held his scythe and hung his head low. "Are you okay, Death?"

Taking in a deep breath and letting it go, Death shook his head. "Telling lies is not one of my strongest traits, Jun."

"What's wrong, buddy?" Jun questioned serenely, upon hearing such a confession from his AI for the first time.

"I should have found her sooner."

Jun hated to admit it, but during the entire ordeal, he had forgotten that his AI was right there with him, witnessing the whole thing. "Death..."

"If I had, we could have visited her sooner. She would not have to go through all of the pain that took almost 3 years to heal. We would not have to witness..." He timidly turned his head to her door. "That. It was horrifying. I could practically feel the pain in each word she spoke. She claims to not be strong, but she is very wrong, my dear boy. Only a strong person can withstand what she carries."

He could easily hear the fear in Death's tone. Something was definitely not right. "Death, where are you going with this?"

"Jun, when I was born, some of the memories I inherited from you were the bad ones and I told you I locked them away yes? Well... I foolishly presumed that that would be it. That there would be nothing else to bury. However now... I would have to bury that. Lady Celestina's breakdown deeply troubled me, Jun, and I cannot fully comprehend why."

"Death," Jun sat one hand on Death's shoulder, prompting him to look at his carrier. "You were created from me. While you don't have all of my memories, you have enough to know that I care about Celestina very much. So it's only natural that you would care about her too and feel upset to have seen her like that. But Death, she's going to be okay now. Really. And so will you. You can get past this. Do whatever you need to do. Okay?" He certainly felt like he was talking to a little child at that point, but it mattered none to him. Death, after all, was family.

Death gave what looked a reluctant nod, but he was being sincere. "Alright."

"Now come on. Let's go say hi."

Celestina switched off her desktop computer and watched as the holographic screen disintegrated into nothing when the door to her office slide to an open. Jun entered once again, sporting a smile. "Celest? There's someone I'd love for you to meet."

Celestina was making her way around her desk when Death made his grand appearance in a mist of sage-green. She gasped in utter amazement at the sight of the AI. "You have your own AI?"

"He was created for work purposes." Jun said.

"That's awesome!" The bright smile she was famous for returned to her face, making Jun exceedingly happy at the moment. "Hi there!" She greeted cheerfully.

"Come on, buddy," Jun titled his head at him. "Doesn't appearing like that make you strain your neck?" He asked, taking them back to the day they first met.

"How right you are," Death said. "Pardon me, my lady, but this just will not do. You two are far too tall." With that, he activated his special ability to appear life-sized.

Another gasp left the female Spartan. "Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude. You've got to be kidding me!"

"Not at all. I am just that talented," He informed with a hint of cheekiness in his tone. "Lady Celestina," He held his hand out, to which Celestina gave him hers. "It is an honor to finally meet you. I am Death."

"Hi, Death. It's nice to meet you too! I hope you've been taking good care of this Spartan." She glanced at Jun.

"But of course, Lady Celestina!" Death said enthusiastically. "If I do not, he will just fall apart, and I will just panic."

"Wow, you two have the same sense of humor! And... accent," She added, after a brief realization. "Take away all the huskiness and you'll get the voice too..."

"Oh, you mean the sexy accent?" Death questioned, seemingly messing with her.

Her hazel eyes widened with pure shock and not to mention embarrassment. "Well... it doesn't take a genius to figure out who you were created from."

"So now, it's a matter of choice who has the sexier accent, Celest."

"Don't do this to me now, Jun," Celestina glared at him in a kittenish manner.

"Ah, young love," Death remarked, looking at them respectively. "Well, I do not wish to intrude. The both of you have plenty to talk about! I shall disappear and bury myself in work and leave you two lovebirds alone." He turned back to Celestina once more. "A pleasure once again, Lady Celestina. You take care now."

"You too, Death." She said with all her heart, unable to contain her smile at the awesomeness that is Jun's personal AI.

The faceless AI vanished in a green fog, leaving the two former Spartan-IIIs alone. Neither of them knew what to say at first, but then only one word left Celestina's lips. "You."

"Pardon?"

"You told me to choose which of you has the sexier accent," Flashing a devilish smirk, she then made her way to her leather sofa and took a seat. "I choose you."

Jun returned the smirk and sat down on the sofa right beside her. "Well, it was never really a competition, princess."

"Don't ever stop calling me that." She requested with pleading eyes.

He took her left hand and clasped it tightly. "I'll do whatever you want me to, princess."

Celestina gave him an apologetic look. "I really wish you hadn't seen that. I'm so sorry I pointed a gun at you. I really thought you were a hallucination!"

"You don't have to apologize for anything, Celest,"

"Well..." Her hazel eyes shifted to her door. "I sorta have to apologize to my door."

Confused, Jun turned his head just enough to see what appeared to be a bullet hole in her door. "What happened?"

Intimidation was all over her face at that point and he could easily see it. "I'd... rather not say."

"Celest, come on. You know you can talk to me."

"But you won't like what I have to say."

There was only reason why she would say something like that, but Jun himself hated to say it. "Does it something to do with what you were saying earlier? About me... doing those horrible things to you?"

"That's why I don't want to say anything. You'll feel bad, even when it's so not your fault."

This time, he held that one hand of hers with two hands. "You know you need to tell me."

She really didn't want to, but she also knew that Jun wanted to help her in any way he can. Just like the old days. "Um... It happened yesterday. That hallucination of you tried to get me to commit suicide. So I shot it." Celestina said, unable to look him in the eyes.

Oh wow. "Celest, the suicidal tendencies... They stopped after you were, what, 10? Why again?"

She reached up and ran her hand past his left cheek. "I guess it's probably to do with hearing that the only two remaining family members I had dying."

Emile. "I would have loved for him to be here too, Celest. It's been... difficult." With that, he looked away.

His entire team had been eradicated. She knew exactly how horrible he might be feeling. "Sweetie, talk to me," She placed her other hand over theirs. "How've you been handling it all?"

"Well, where do I start?"

"Wherever you want."

"I'll tell you everything. It's about time I stop trying to bury most of everything I go through." The only other two people who knew what went down were his therapist and of course, Death. He wouldn't leave Celestina out of it though. He knew, at some point, he would have to inform her of everything that had happened these past few months. So he breathed in and exhaled heavily. "You know Doctor Halsey?"

"Who doesn't?" She said humorlessly.

"This was after... we lost Jorge and Kat. Carter instructed me to escort her to CASTLE base. When we go there, there was already ODSTs securing the area. Less than a few hours later, the Covenant showed up; we think they might have followed us there. It was a massacre, Celest. All of the ODSTs were killed. It was only me and the doc left. By then, I'd already gotten my ass kicked good but at least nothing fell into enemy hands. I told her to shut the doors to the base while I would do whatever I could to make sure nobody else would find her. I didn't know what I could do or how to do it but... survival wasn't a choice for me at that point. I used the pelican we arrived in to cause a little distraction, to throw them off and it worked. Most of the forces were converging towards me. I don't know where exactly on Reach did I crash-land but there sure was one hell of a welcome party. A Hunter knocked me out cold and I have no idea for how long. When I woke up... I was in a Covenant ship, I didn't know what kind," He looked down at their hands, unable to find the strength to look her in the eyes. "They were torturing me."

Celestina didn't say a word, but instead, she gasped extremely softly, stunned.

"Somehow, they managed to remove some of the armor plating and... I didn't tell them a damn thing. Well, except to go screw themselves."

At this point, he was unknowingly playing with her hands. "The next thing I knew, I was on a Phantom, being taken to God knows where. That's when it ran into trouble with a Longsword. Even with all the injuries I sustained, I managed to take control of the Phantom while the crew was in disarray. When I stepped into the Longsword, I passed out instantly but at least I was going home. I was at Liongsong Medical Facility since September 19th."

"17th."

Jun finally made eye contact with her again, and found that she had new tears in her eyes. "Sorry?"

"I searched for Noble Team's status on the 17th. By then, Reach had already fallen, and there was just so many rumors... I had to see it for myself. It listed all of you as MIA," She was a little abashed to mentioned it the next part. "I checked the Spartan database for the first time since then just now. You're listed as WIA." She then simpered at that. "My bad. Guess I overreacted." She wiped away a tear that had fallen unintentionally.

He shook his head at that, though her reaction made him grin a little. "You were basically cut off from everything you ever knew, Celest, and it was for your protection. You couldn't have known that I would have made it."

"Reeeeeeeally wish I did. If not, there would've been a bullet in either one of us, courtesy of yours not-so truly..."

"Celestina..." He warned in a playful tone.

"Okay, fine, I'll stop!" She held her both of her hands in truce. "You get serious when you use my full name."

For that, she received a chuckle.

"Jun? Why WIA?" She questioned. "Is it... what I think it is?"

Probably one of her worst fears came through at that point when he nodded his head grudgingly. "When I was found, I was... broken, Celest. In more ways than one. There was also psychological damage, not just physical."

"Psychological...?" Hearing it so much herself, Celestina almost hated it.

"I kept... having nightmares about what the Covenant did to me. About how Kat's death was so tortuously familiar to Sally's. A lot of things I never thought I would never dream of ever again."

"Tyumen."

"Tyumen was definitely one of them," He confirmed with a painful lump in his throat. "I was told about Noble. After which, I... had to be sedated."

"Oh, Jun..."

"I guess it was all too much to handle. I didn't speak for about a week after the news. I didn't want to speak," He admitted to her. "I kept a little journal to help me with my thoughts. And it truly worked. But I was still discharged from the program, and maybe it was for the best." He was met with another caress at his left cheek.

"Well, you're safe now, sweetie."

"I know," Jun placed his hand over hers. "Having Death around made me feel safer than I've ever felt in a long time. And..." This time, he made sure to look at her in her hazel eyes instead of looking away. "While I was in captivity, it was unimaginable but... but then I remembered your song."

"You mean the lullaby Caden would sing to me. 'Hero'?" That song meant the world to her and only Jun knew of it.

He nodded at that. "Definitely brought me a lot of comfort during that time. And now that you're here too? Everything's even better now."

How he loved seeing that smile on her flawless face once again. He had missed it so much. "I'm so glad to hear that, Jun! I mean, look at you! Better watch out, sweetie, you could get arrested for being too damn good-looking in this suit."

"Ironically, Death predicated that you would say something like that."

"Dude was created from you. Of course he'd know a thing or two about how I roll," She said, raising her eyebrows. "But seriously though, what's with the suit? You did all this just to see my face?" She remarked with a smirk.

He shrugged his shoulders at that. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't?"

"Come on. Tell me!"

The news would definitely put another spring in her step. "Around the time I was rescued, there were plans for the Spartan-IV program. I was recruited as the second-in-charge."

She gawked at him upon hearing that. "NO WAY."

"Yes way."

"Jun, that's amazing!" She squealed uncontrollably, leaning forward to give him a hug. "And you're just the right person for it too!"

"Thanks so much, princess," He thanked her with all all his heart, patting her on the back. "It's a good job too." He said as they pulled away. "Death took a while to find your location and when he did, we found another potential recruit right here in your base. Gave me an excuse to see this face." He cupped her left cheek lovingly, stroking it with his thumb.

"I'll bet!"

It was then that it dawned upon him he didn't mention the newest thing about her. He used the same hand to ran it through her now mid-back hair. "You grew out your hair!"

Her cheeks immediately flushed at that. "Yeah, I did... You like it?"

It was hard to say; he was so used to seeing her in her shoulder-length hair. "Uhhh..."

"I'll take that as a big-ass no. I'll cut it when I can."

"Come on, princess, I didn't mean it that way."

"It's okay, actually! Having longer hair is kind of a pain. I tend to get lazy when it's time to wash my hair."

They shared a hearty laugh at that, getting lost in the moment and forgetting about whatever that had just transpired.

"Jun," Celestina called out, albeit nervous to continue. "I'm so happy to see you're okay. I've missed you for the last 3 years. Part of me always worried that after so long and without communication, you'd start to feel differently about me. I mean, I can see that that's not the case but-"

She was cut off by a hard kiss to her lips, one that was sudden but she certainly was not fighting off. It appeared to her that Jun wanted to prove that his feelings for her had not changed and that they never will.

It was one hell of a way to show it.

A/N: Yay for happy times!

Happy Holidays, everyone! Stay tuned for the next chapter. :)