Author's Note: I am so super sorry about the wait! I have just been so busy with so many other things that writing has kind of taken a back seat in my life a bit, which makes me sad! I really love hearing what people have to say, they encourage me to keep on going! I would like to hear from yall again! Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Warnings: Language, OOCness, un-beta'd.
Word Count: 4,501
If Cortana had a heart, it would be pounding. She could imagine that it would be in sync with John's - who's was elevated - but that's because she doesn't have a heart and has never experienced a racing heart. The only one she has to go off of is John's. His heart rate and vitals are the only ones she has studied so in depth that she can almost predict how it'll react to certain situations.
But in this moment, her thoughts are split between whoever it is that is attacking them, and what she just did. She just revealed herself to him. He knows now. He listened to her and moved. He knows. He had to of known that something was sneaking up on him, yet he wasn't moving. She just doesn't understand. It's like he was waiting for something.
Was it her?
Had he started to suspect that she was there with him and was waiting for her to finally reveal herself to him? He used her desperation to keep him alive to finally get her to let the metaphorical cat out of the bag? If she could - without distracting him - she would scream in frustration. Why did he have to do something like that? if he knew that she was there, then he should have said something, not putting his life in danger just to oust her. What if she had said nothing? Would he have allowed whatever that was to get him?
Oh, she wants to scream alright. She wants to dwell on it longer, she really does, but she can't. She has to focus on who is attacking them and how to help John out of this situation. Or through it, at least.
John takes a huge leap off of the cliff overhanging the camp, bringing his legs up a bit to be able to easily fall into a roll once he hits the ground, as she's seen him do a hundred times. A day, it seems. He turns his head around a bit to look over his shoulder, scanning it for whoever was sneaking up on him. Cortana looks too, her eyes scanning the open space before she sees him. Her cover is already blown, might as well not pretend that it isn't and help him out.
"There, John, to the right!" Cortana calls out. "An elite!"
Master Chief reaches for his pistol aims it at the slight shivering in the air and fires a few times. They make contact and the cloaking device sputters and falters until the elite in dark blue armor appears, brandishing his own plasma pistol and firing it at him. They hit and John's shields power up to try and protect him. Master Chief turns away from the plasma shots, knowing that they can't break through his shields faster then his descent to the camp. He's right. He hits the ground. Hard. And moves into an effortless roll.
The camp is a mess. It was definitely a coordinated strike by the Covenant around the base. Once Master Chief is back on his feet, he's looking around the camp, taking in the scene around him. Elites fighting elites, grunts fighting grunts, jackles fighting jackles and humans fighting all three Covenant types all at once. The Spartans are easily falling into their formations and Cortana can see Blue Team making their way to Master Chief, all guns poised and taking out anyone who gets in their way.
"Those turrets," John says, pulling Cortana from her silent observation through his mask. He's looking over at the defense turrets that they were setting up around the base. "Why aren't they firing?" He was slowly walking toward Blue Team, pulling up his SMG, blasting off a few shots into a grunt's head without barely a second glance.
"They must not be online yet," Cortana says. She remembers that Buck was saying something about there being some issues with the tech as it was damaged in the battle of Sanghelios. "Buck said they were having issues."
"Do you think you can get them online somehow?" John asks, not seeming to mind that she remembered something that he appeared to of not.
Cortana perks up. She wanted to practically scream, "Yes! I can!" but didn't know for certain if she could. He was asking her to do something. He needed her still. She could help him out. If he was asking her to help him, that means he trusts her and wants to keep her around. At least for the moment. So long as he trusts that she still has his back, that's all she can ask for. Everything else can, hopefully, come later.
First, they have to survive this attack.
"I'll try," she says, her voice remaining even, somehow, despite her excitement. "I think I'm still in the chip in your helmet. Yank me."
Master Chief diverts his course, heading toward the control panel for the turrets near the head tent that once housed the Arbiter. Kelly yells out to John, asking where he's going, but he doesn't stop. He's a man on a mission. Cortana didn't see the Arbiter as they passed the opening and assumed that it was probably safe to guess that he was out there fighting alongside his men and the humans. Someone calls out to them - well, John - again but he doesn't respond. He's honed in on his objective and he's not going to let anything distract him.
Once he gets to the control panel, he reaches into the back of his helmet, pausing for a moment before his fingers wrap around the edge of a familiar chip, then he removes it from his helmet. He pauses another moment, looking down at the bright blue center, glowing in the bit of shade cast by the canopy overtop of them. He doesn't waste another second before plugging her into the counsel and watching as she appears above it, exactly as she did the last time they saw each other on the Didact's ship.
Cortana stares up at him, seeing herself reflect in his visor once more and is reminded of the simulation she trapped herself in not too long ago. There was so much that she wanted to say - to apologize for. There was just too much left unsaid and so much more that just needed to be addressed, but she knew that now was not the time. If she wanted to get back into anyone's good graces, she had to start being helpful again. She had to start being more like she used to be. She just had to start helping.
She wishes there was something that she can do to somehow completely mend their fractured relationship, but knew that there wasn't anything that could be said. What she - or the other Cortana? - has said and done isn't something that can just go away. It will hang between the two of them until they can figure out where to go from there. This all may not be a direct action of this Cortana, but she will have to own up to it regardless. They might be different, but at one point they weren't.
Amends and apologies will be mad and given, and hopefully accepted, but it's not something that she needs to think about right now. It will come. She will have to face everyone soon, but it's not something she needs to focus on. At least, not yet. It is something that must come with time, she knew, it's logical. And if nothing else, Cortana is a logical thinker.
She pulls her eyes away from her reflection in his visor to start scanning through the turrets diagnostics, trying to see why they aren't online and how she can try and fix it.
"Alright, Chief," Cortana says, her voice even, this is business.
"I'm ready," he says, straightening up.
Cortana has to stop herself from smiling at his words. His eagerness. She could tell him to jump off the nearest cliff and construct a pylon there, and he would do it without question. The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least she can always rely on John being John. That's a relief. Honestly, there was so few people in the galaxy she trusted, but John? He is someone that she will forever, and always, trust with her life. Err, programing. She pushes the thoughts away. Now isn't the time to be thinking about anything other than the mission.
"It's a faulty system. All the turrets are interconnected through a power cup-link in the center of the camp, to the north of here. According to my scans, there was work done on them but before they could be reattached, the attack occurred. I need you to reattach that power cup-link. If the work was a success then I should be able to take control of the turrets," Cortana says, looking up at him. "I'll stay here and start positioning the turrets in hopes that they will end up working. Oh, let me mark the location on your map for you. Good luck, John."
Master Chief nods, stepping back. Cortana disappears into the counsel as Blue Team breaks into the tent.
"Chief?" Fredric says as John walks past him.
"Let's go."
"Where are we going, Chief?" Kelly asks, moving to his side with her SMG poised and ready to go. The rest of Blue Team falls into step with them as Master Chief leads the way toward the power cup-link.
"We are going to get these turrets back online," John says, shooting a couple of bullets off in the back of a jackle's head without even stopping his stride. The rest of Blue Team chase after him until they've matched stride before slowing down without asking any more questions. The Blue Team seamlessly move through the camp taking out any and every Covenant operative that gets in their way.
Halsey is surrounded by Osiris. She's ducked down next to one of the tents, looking more exhausted than afraid. Her blue eyes turn toward the moving Spartans of Blue Team. The Master Chief spares a single moment to look over at her, seeing that she is safe in the tight, protective circle of Osiris, before looking away to continue. He can feel her eyes on him, but he doesn't spare her another glance. Osiris is perfectly capable of protecting her, she doesn't need his help.
That, and perhaps in a very childish manner - and in a manner that is also legit - John doesn't want to speak with her. Neither of the reasons were something he cared to think about at the moment. He was going to keep his mind focused on the task at hand and worry about everything else once everyone was safe and sound. At least then he wouldn't have to split his focus.
Cortana. He has to focus on Cortana. Right now, her and saving this camp is all that matters.
Cortana makes sure to move all of the turrets into place for when John manages to reattach the power cup-links, then she will be able to turn them against the Covenant. She's anxious for John's return, not because she doesn't believe that he can do this, but because she's scared what's going to follow. No one is going to be happy that she's there. Even if she does help them, no one is going to be happy about it. Even if now is the last moments she's going to have, she's glad that she'll be able to spend it helping John.
In the counsel, she has access to the camp's meager security system to look at the camp. She is able to locate John and Blue Team immediately as they blast their way to the power cup-links. Like with all things, the Covenant seems to have realized why the turrets weren't firing and were protecting the hook-up. Cortana waits anxiously for John to return. This is usually the case whenever he leaves her alone so that he can do something. She knows that he can handle himself perfectly fine without her in his ear, but when she isn't with him, there is this weird phenomenon in her systems were everything can only be described as 'frazzled' which is not something that a normal AI can get.
Er, be. Be? Yeah. Be.
Cortana moves the last of the turrets into position, honing them in on Covenant signatures, being extra careful not to open up on any of their allies and waits patiently. The few cameras that there is in the camp don't offer her a clear view of the obvious battle ensuing by the power cup-links. From what she can see, there is bodies literally flying everywhere. Blue Team is working like a well oiled machine from years of working together and having grown up together. Honestly, Cortana isn't surprised to see them ripping right through the Covenant like they are nothing.
The Arbiter makes his way over there, flanked by two Elites and vanish into the fry, all three armed with energy swords. They seem to be doing a good job giving the Covenant a beat down when Cortana sees an alert from the turrets' system to show that the cup-link connection has been reestablished and power is returning to them.
Not wasting a moment, Cortana uses the sensors of the turrets to begin picking off the Covenant in the camp. It doesn't take long for the Covenant to realize that they are out-gunned and high tail it out, but not before they chuck enough sticky grenades at one of the five towers, destroying it in a bright blue explosion. Cortana flinches at the shriek through the system, working to reroute the power and keep the remaining turrets firing until the retreating Covenant have left their firing range.
The battle barely lasted fifteen minutes, and while they didn't claim many lives, they did a lot of damage to the camp itself. Cortana puts the turrets on patrol mode to keep them alert in case any movement from the Covenant come again. That doesn't secure the huge opening they made when they destroyed the western most tower. They are going to have post guards there until they can fix it, less the Covenant use it to stage another surprise attack.
Cortana looks back into the security system of the camp and is immediately alarmed when she sees Halsey making her way right for her. There is no way that she could know! Unless, she's been watching the turrets and the tent to know that no one went in there after John left and she was somehow the only logical reason for them to have been firing...
That, or, she's coming to see how it's possible that the turrets magically opened fire on the Covenant without killing a single one of the humans or the Arbiter's men.
She can also see in the cameras that John is making his way back to her too. He's in no hurry, though, even after seeing Halsey ahead of him, going to the same place. Then again, John rarely feels pressured to hurry to do anything. Even in alarming and pressing situations, he takes his time, or somehow manages to make it to his destination in time to prevent the bomb from going off or save someone's life without much rush.
If Cortana was in his position, she's sure she'd be tripping over herself trying to get there in time, sweating every moment. That was one of the most infuriating things about him. He never seemed in too much of a rush, despite the situation. If she could sweat, she would be drenched, but he actually could sweat, and was as cool as a cucumber.
But it was also something that she loved about him. He never panicked, or lost his head. He always focused on the mission and didn't get stuck in his head. Didn't let fear or worry get in the way of what he has to do. He just keeps pushing forward. He'll deal with whatever is to follow, whenever it comes. Until then, he doesn't appear to care for it. Or offer it much thought.
It's at moments like this that Cortana's envious of that level of aloofness, especially when she could use a bit of it herself as Halsey enters the tent. First, she looks around the tent to see that she's seemingly alone. Then, she walks straight to the counsel Cortana is currently housed in and begins to bring up the controls, looking through it, probably to see if what happened was something programmed or manual.
Cortana doesn't need to be able to see Halsey's face to practically feel the moment her eyes scanned manual. Even though Cortana can't 'feel' the tent be sucked of all of it's warm air. It was just something that Cortana felt in whatever the equivalent to a soul that she has. Cortana has never done anything that lead her to conflict with Halsey, not really. Nothing as bad as this. She's never feared Halsey, and saw her as a lifeline while she was being ravaged by the rampancy, but now she wants nothing more than to deteriorate into a complex code sequence and vanish from sight until this entire thing blows over.
But she can't do that.
For one; it's impossible. That's not how AIs work. They can't just simply deconstruct themselves on a physical side and disappear into codes of data, and even if they could, they wouldn't want to on a simple and closed system like this network she's plugged into.
And two; she knew that this was coming. She knew that she would have to stand before her creator and try and find a way to explain all the things she didn't really do, and fill in the holes for the things she doesn't remember. A part of her knew that it was blissful ignorance to think that they could somehow skip over all of this, but she couldn't help but wish for it.
Which is silly for a program to do. Wishing, that is.
"How is this possible..?" Halsey asks quietly, to herself.
"Doc," John says, stepping into the tent, magically giving Cortana a bit courage.
Halsey turns to look over at John, her eyebrows pulling together tightly. "John. How did you do it?" Master Chief doesn't respond, just stares down at Halsey as the remaining Blue Team and Osiris make their way into the tent.
"The Arbiter's men are making sure there is no stragglers," Locke says as soon as Halsey looks at him. Then he appears to register the look on her face. "What's wrong?"
"What happened with those turrets?" Halsey asks.
"They became operational and fired on the Covenant," Buck says, confused by her question. "What's so wrong about that?"
"Who did it?" Halsey asks, waving her one hand around. "Who was operating the turrets?"
Buck opens his mouth before looking around the tent, making a mental note that he saw everyone outside the tent and there was only one way in. Halsey practically made a beeline for the tent after the immediate threat was dealt with. There is no way someone could have easily slipped past the doctor without her noticing.
Vale and Locke look at one another, both coming up with the same mental conclusion. Suddenly on alert, all of the Spartans in the room - excluding John - grip their weapons a bit closer, looking around wearily. The feeling of "whomever it was, is probably still here somewhere" becomes apparent, and Cortana knew that this charade has gone on long enough. Especially since the only one not weary, was John, and they were beginning to realize that he knows more than he has said.
"John..." Halsey says slowly.
"Don't be afraid," Cortana says, appearing on the counsel. "I was the one controlling the turrets." Not that they wouldn't be more alarmed if it was her controlling it than say a ghost.
Halsey's shoulders pull together a bit before she turns and glares down at her. "Cortana."
The Spartans in the room actually jerk in surprise.
"Cortana?" Kelly gasps.
"How is that possible?" Buck asks.
"When did she get here?" Taka asks, raising her weapon a bit higher but not daring to point it at anything just yet. Especially seeing the sharp look the Master Chief pointed toward Osiris. Locke's eyes narrow a bit behind his helmet but he's the only one that has yet to move. He's not going to be rash about anything. The Master Chief seems to not at all be surprised that she's with them. There is a reason for that.
He has a better understanding of what is going on.
The Chief is a smart man. He knows what Cortana is capable of doing. He knows how dangerous she can be. He may still believe that they are friends and that he can bring her back to the UNSC, but that doesn't mean he's lost the ability to think clearly. He showed that when he rejected her offer to stay with her. He doesn't want to be part of her grand plan. He wants her to stop it.
Now he's trying to think of, at what moment, did they meet up beyond the Cryptum. Master Chief has been quietly anxious about getting off of Sanghelios somehow and going in search of Cortana, that means either he became a great actor at some unknown point, or he didn't realize that she was with him until just recently. After the wonderful encounter that Blue Team and Osiris had during the whole Cortana debacle, Locke figured that their time together was best when limited. The less time that they could possibly have getting on each other's nerves, the better.
Blue Team was formidable, and Locke wasn't sure he wanted to open that can of worms again so soon after everything. There was so few humans with them as of now, the last thing they needed to do was form a rift between the two strongest groups.
Especially since the chances of the Arbiter taking the Chief's side is great. They need to be focusing on how to stop the Guardians and Cortana, not fighting each other.
"What's going on?" Locke finally asks, realizing that no one was really answering. He looks over at the green armored Spartan. "Chief?"
The green armored Spartan looks at him for a moment, as if debating something before looking over at Cortana and walking up to the counsel holding her image. She looks up at him with large blue eyes.
"Cortana?" Master Chief calls out.
"Chief?" Cortana says. Her voice is even but her eyes are blown so wide, she looks like a deer caught in the headlights. She doesn't have the same... demeanor as the Cortana they met. There is something about her that is noticeably different about her. Her appearance is more of an AI and less like a person, more shades of blue rather than her pale complexion, mimicking that of a human, and pale eyes. Her eyes are filled with faint data patterns.
"Thank you for getting those turrets online," Master Chief says.
Cortana perks a bit, blinking a few times, before looking away looking... embarrassed somehow. "You are welcome. I just wanted to help."
"I appreciate it," Master Chief says, still staring down at her.
"Wait a second," Bucky says, waving his arms around to draw everyone's attention to him. "Can someone tell me what in the hell is going on? How did Cortana get here? What am I missing?"
"I have been here since Chief got here," Cortana says, looking up at him. She grabs at her right elbow with her left hand. "I was in the Cryptum with Blue Team when they got trapped inside."
Kelly bulks in surprise. "Does that mean that you are the real Cortana?" Her question makes it feel like time stops. Cortana had never though about that. She always thought that she and the other her were somehow one and the same. But what if they really weren't? What if whomever she is, she was just made to look like her and hold her memories? It's easy to copy and download files from her memory banks, especially if she's dealing with another highly advance AI construct. Perhaps something built by the Forerunners.
"I..." Cortana says slowly. "I don't know."
"Is there any way that you would be able to tell?" John asks.
Cortana shakes her head. "I feel like me. I don't have any unexplainable black holes in my memory banks other than when I made it to Genesis and found The Domain. I can't explain what happened then. I could feel my rampancy being washed away from my systems, and then..." She rubs at her head, trying to find a way to understand the hazy, flashes of images too quick for her to be able to decipher. "Well, the next thing I knew, I was with Chief and Blue Team as they were exiting the Cryptum."
"How did you get there?" Vale asks.
Cortana shakes her head. "I don't know. I can theorize that whatever... or whomever, you faced must have put me there. For what reason? I'm not sure." She was hoping that somehow her and this other Cortana were two entirely separate beings but until they were somehow able to prove that, she would still have to bare the burden of the blunders of another.
"This is good, isn't it?" Buck asks, looking around at the other Spartans. "If this is the real Cortana, then she might be able to help us get out of this mess."
"But that's just the thing," Kelly says sadly, turning to look past John to Cortana. Her voice is genuinely sad and Cortana can't help but like her even more. "We don't know if this is the real Cortana. The one that Master Chief knew. The one that was good."
"And for that reason," Halsey says, "we need to treat her as an enemy. She needs to be destroyed."
For the Reviewers:
1. Beti: Thank you so much! I am so happy to hear that you like it! Aww, I'm glad that you are able to get behind it! In tears? Really? I can't imagine that! I didn't think it was that... intense. XD It's a little bit easier now, but that's not the conversation between John and Cortana. When this conversation is over, they are still going to have to talk things through. Or, at least, Cortana is, seeing as John isn't much of a talker. He's keeping his cool for now, but what can you expect? He really knows how to roll with the punches. XD
2. Ranschaj: Thank you so much! I appreciate it. I'm so glad you said that! I was so worried that it looked like I wasn't giving her enough... character? I suppose. That she seemed very two-dimensional. I really do like her character and hope that I would be able to do her justice in my writing. I'm worried about Halsey's character as well. I have a very clear view of how I see her, that I don't know if it fits in her actual character molding. I'm hoping that I'm selling it enough to be passable, but, well, who knows? XD Are you referring to the Halo 5 timeline?
3. Hubert: Thank you! I'm sorry about the wait!