Show No Fear

wooo another update! It's really coming together well with this story and as long as people keep reading, I'll keep writing. Please review if you read, I'd like some input on the story so far.

How could I have been so stupid?! It was about an hour after our little confrontation on the bridge and we were currently driving a tank through an underground path along with Johnson's team. Not another word had been exchanged between the two of us as we fought through room after room of covenant, Cortana being the only one to speak up and actually get a response. Personally I felt ashamed of myself, I let my emotions get the better of me and totally disrespected a spartan and fellow soldier. Ever since I had woken up from my near death experience I had been feeling, and acting, different; almost as if all my self control had slipped from my grasp and now I couldn't stop. I wanted so badly to just tell him that I wanted him safe but at the same time I didn't want to even try and get close, and it wasn't like he would ever feel the same he's a damned spartan.

"Ghosts up ahead!" I turned my head from my position on the tank and got my weapon ready as I heard the tell tale hovering sound of ghosts just up ahead. "We'll need to take them out before we can move any further." It was hard enough to take out covenant without vehicles but if a few of them were on ghosts it just made a problem we didn't need, and I knew that the marines wouldn't hold up too well against those odds. I hesitated with the solution that I was thinking of but I had to act fast if I wanted to stop Johnson from pushing his men forward and alerting the elites to our presence.

"Johnson wait! Let me move in while I'm cloaked and I'll take one of the ghosts, it will give us the upper hand and I can take out the other one without a problem." "That's a damned death wish if your cloak doesn't hold up long enough-" "It will. Let me do it." I could see that he was conflicted between letting me go and telling me that it was too dangerous, but I knew in the end he would see that it was the best of our options right now. We couldn't afford to lose many more men. "I...alright Dusk. But don't get yourself killed, is that understood?" "Sir yes sir."

I didn't wait to even look if the spartan had heard my plan, I knew he wouldn't say anything any way and I'd rather try and earn a bit or respect back. I moved silently while cloaked and as I made my way over the metal slope I spotted both elites actually getting off their ghosts at the moment; they had moved them into the corner and parked the vehicles side by side before powering them off and moving to stand beside a stack of purple containers, nonchalantly conversing in that strange language of theirs and chuckling every now and then. "All right, you can do this, just stay focused and calm..." My boots were quiet as I crept carefully around the hulking aliens, I always hated the way their mouths moved while they talked and all of their shark like teeth became visible.

*Blip* I jumped a bit as the cloak for my armor sent a signal to my helmet to let me know I only had 30 seconds left, looked like it was now or never that I did this. Before it ran out I hopped onto one of the ghosts and hit the accelerator, lurching speedily forward and smashing one of the elites to the ground and probably broke his neck. "Arrrrgh!" The other elite rolled out of the way but met his death as Johnson appeared on top of the tank, its top visible over the bump, and sent a bullet first through the aliens chest, then through his head. Blue-purple blood spattered all over the metal floor and I wrinkled my nose in disgust, no matter how many times I saw it I was always repulsed by the sight of their blood.

"Good job Dusk, now we just need to make our way out of this damn cave like place and on to where the rest of the squad is. Their coordinates are a few kliks north."

(Time Skip)

"Rikki are you sure you should be continuing this mission?" "It's nothing ok? Besides we're almost there aren't we?" "Yes but-" "I'm fine." Soon after they had made it out of the cave they were able to find the rest of the squad, but along with that they found a pair of hunters. The battle didn't last too long but one of them managed to catch the Agent off guard and got in a hit with one of their heavily armored arms; crushing part of her helmet and damaging the cloaking device on her armor to where it would occasionally flick on and off. She also noticed a dulled pain in her right foot. "Shit." Her readings were showing two large enemies in the next room and knowing their luck it was going to be yet another set of hunters. "I'm reading another pair of hunters in the next room, let me go first." "I can handle it-" "No. Not in your condition, stay back where you're safe. I'll call you when I'm done." Her eyes widened in surprise as she watched the Master Chief pull out his pistol and storm into the next room to face the two heavily armored beasts, was her worried about her?

She didn't want to assume but they way he told her to stay back where its safe was sending some signals, his voice actually held something in it. "Hey Cortana?" "Hmm?" "...are we on a secure channel? I mean just you and I." The AI waited a moment then responded cockily, "We are now. What's wrong?" "It's just...I feel like an ass for what I said to him earlier and now he probably hates me, but he wants me safe. He talks to you right?" "Umm well, not openly really. Mostly small things like the mission...but I did press him a bit about you." Her breath caught in her throat at they way Cortana said that and waited a minute before asking the impending question. "...What'd he say?" "Well, he doesn't hate you. Usually he doesn't like to get close to anyone so he's trying to stay as neutral as possible, but I can tell that you've moved something in him. Keep at it and just don't be put down, you'll be good for him."

Really? Could a spartan really feel something for me? It seemed like a long shot what with this war going on but maybe Cortana was right, maybe there was a chance that we could learn to accept each other and take our chances. But her thoughts were disrupted as she felt a hand grasp her upper arm and gently yet firmly pull her to her feet. "Alright, there's two banshee's on a bridge right after we leave this room, if we're quick enough we can commandeer them and have a straight shot to Halo's control center. You ready?" Even though I couldn't see his eyes I could practically feel them boring into mine behind his helmet, neutral as always and hardened from all the fighting and war. I wondered what color they were...maybe green...

"I'm ready."

My heart began to race as I ran as fast as I could towards the banshee that was currently in my sights, I had no idea when this invisibility was going to wear off and I didn't want to be stuck in the middle of this bridge when it did. The Master Chief told me to grab it instead of him since my cloaking device was broken and I was injured, "I can take care of myself" was the last thing he said before I ran. "Almost there..." I held my breath as I finally reached the alien vehicle and hopped in, not feeling very familiar with the controls and how they worked. "Just put your hands into the two slots that you see and grasp the levers in the back, and to fire just click the buttons on top of them." "Alright into the slots then." I placed my hands inside the slots of which he spoke and grasped the levers I felt in the back.

"Narr Mal! Arak neer Sar!" "Oh shit oh shit!" I heard a commotion outside of the banshee and I began to panic as I heard, and felt, the covenant begin to hit the aircraft. Looked like it was now or never. I pulled back on the levers and gasped in surprise as I lurched forward off of the bridge and into the air, watching the ground racing towards me at an alarming speed on my viewer. "Pull up!" I heard the spartan yell into the comm and I did so, turning my view from one of the ground to one of the sky. "I...I did it...I did it!" As I got a hang for the controls I also shot at any covenant that were on the bridge, but away from the spartan, so as to provide some cover fire. "Who's defeating who now you bastards!" One by one they dropped off the bridge with screams of fear, realizing that the ground was going to be their resting place instead of ours. "Good job, now I need you to fly just overhead of me so I can grab onto the banshee." "But I thought you had one?" "No. I only said that so you wouldn't argue with me over whether I should take it or not, now fly over here before they send out more." He lied? But he should have taken this then instead of me-...oh, that's what he meant by arguing about it. Knowing that he was right but hating the reason I carefully turned the aircraft and slowed down so that I went overhead of him slow enough so that he could grab on, but right as he was about to jump a shot from a plasma cannon shook the side of the bridge and almost made him fall off. "What the hell was that?!" "Company."

A second banshee came into view and shot another plasma missile before weaving around me and disappearing below the bridge, how was I going to fight in a banshee when I just learned to fly one? "He's going to keep attacking us until we take him out, you need to hit one of his wings with a missile or go high enough that the altitude would knock him out. But I wouldn't take the chance with the latter." "Ok, got it. Just hang tight." I clenched my jaw and took a deep breath as I took off again and looked to my radar, he was still hovering under the bridge. Probably waiting for me to find him. As I headed under he began to move and made a few turns that seemed impossible to me, this guy was an expert flyer. "Shit turn faster c'mon!" I tried to turn like he did but I just wasn't fast enough and I grunted as I felt a few of the small plasma shots hit the side of my banshee. They didn't do heavy damage but if you take enough it's going to wear you down eventually.

"Don't let him get behind you you'll be an easy target!" "Not like I'm trying to let him!" I gritted my teeth and pulled back quickly, bracing myself as the ship did a wide back flip and placed me behind him now. I fired some well shot plasma bolts then switched to the missiles to take him out but the bastard rolled out of the way before I could fire. This deadly dance continued on for what seemed like hours but in reality it was only about 5 minutes, each of us getting shots on the other but never able to get a missile shot in.

"Engine taking heavy damage, land for maintenance." "Shut up I know you're dying!" At the rate I was going I would be the first to blow up, there had to be a better way to get rid of this guy...

the altitude! "Dusk, come back this way and I'll try and highjack the vehicle-" "Sorry Master Chief no can do, he's too quick and there's only one way I'm going to be able to take him out." And before he could try and tell me that it was too dangerous I cut communications completely, "I can do this." My eyes scanned the radar looking for the annoyingly elusive elite until I saw him pop up out of the corner, he always found somewhere to hide somehow. "C'mon big boy lets go!" I got his attention then turned sharply towards a frozen waterfall, heading straight for it and then pulling up at the last minute so that I was going upwards at an angle parallel to it.

He was still following me so I know he didn't crash into the frozen water and I continued to climb higher and higher, ignoring the occasional shot that pushed my vehicle ever so closer to detonation. "Oxygen filters are down, Altitude of 2000 feet...2100 feet." As the altitude counter continued to climb I pushed harder, he wasn't going to stop yet, and chances are that if my oxygen filters were out then so were his. "3500 feet." If this didn't work then what was going to happen? Would the Master Chief make it to the control room? Hopefully he would only wait a minute or two to see if I made it then move on, he couldn't jeopardize the whole mission because of one agent. "4500 feet." My vision was getting kind of blurry and my head felt like it had been filled with that odd laughing gas they give you at the dentist. I looked back down to the radar and saw the red dot flash one more time before it disappeared completely.

"Ha! Got you dirty bastard..." My voice sounded odd, almost as if I was slurring my words together like I had downed more than a few shots. My vision began to go dark around the edges as I stopped climbing in altitude and let the banshee slip into a freefall, but as much as I tried to stay aware my senses continued to dim, pushing my further into the fearful yet peaceful darkness before I completely blacked out.

"Chief, there!" The Master Chief and Cortana could only watch in horror as the banshee of the agent began to free fall towards the ground at an alarming speed. Moments ago she had began to ascend higher into the air to try and make the elite black out and wreck, which had worked, but as a result it seemed as if she too had lost consciousness. "At the speed she's falling her banshee is going to blow-" "Cortana! We need to wake her up, we need to do something!" "Chief she cut communications-" "I know you can hack into her comm Cortana, you've done it to mine." The AI would have been wearing a mask of surprise if she was in her holoform but pushed the feeling away and began to hack the comm. "Almost...got it!"

The comm link crackled to life and the spartan began yelling into it to wake the unconscious agent, "Dusk, Agent Dusk you need to wake up! You are falling at a dangerous speed inside your banshee and need to pull up!" He tried several times but still no response was heard, they were running out of time and fast. "Rikki wake up now! You need to pull up, Rikki!"