1553 Hours, July 14, 2552 (Military Calendar) /

Sol System, Planet Earth, Tokyo

Jorge-052 was tired. Tired in ways that he couldn't even find the words to quantify anymore. He couldn't remember being anything but tired, and he doubted if that would ever change. He was getting old.

But then, two intergalactic wars were likely to do that to a man, super soldier or no.

He scanned the people around him. Happy. Playing, shouting, picnicking . . . peaceful. It was exactly this that he had fought for his whole life. From the age of six, this had been his ultimate goal in life. The fact that his goal was accomplished in a world not his own was its own issue.

A young woman approached him with an easy smile. She was a doctor, inspired to be so by her parents. She wore casual civilian attire, and walked with a confident stride.

"I brought Shogi and lunch," she said, holding up a basket and a board game for him to see. She sat down across from him at the table and began setting up the pieces to begin their customary game. As she idly went through the preparatory phase, she asked, "How are you?"

The Spartan smiled. "Better than I have any right to be, I imagine," he answered truthfully. When he woke up on this world, the one so similar yet so different from his own, he had equated it to some kind of afterlife. A divine second chance to make things better. To save everyone that he lost the first time around.

So he took that chance. It wasn't easy, but he was able to convince enough of the right people to take him seriously. They used what was left of his MJOLNIR to create their own armor. Used his augmentations to create their own versions.

Most importantly, when their version of the Covenant arrived, they truly were ready. They beat them back. They won. And then they achieved peace. The colonies were united by the threat of the intergalactic Covenant, and the UEG was forced to actually take into account the needs of their less affluent citizens. They created a type of Utopia. They fulfilled Jorge's greatest dream.

But now he was an old man. He had lived through two of his own lifetimes, and had shockingly come out on top.

His involvement with the war effort, of course, had to be kept hidden. He was a great asset during the time of the war who was deemed worthy of the utmost protection. After the war was won, however, he had been turned loose on civilian life. The only thing he requested in return for his assistance was information.

First he tried to look into the other Spartan-IIs. It proved practically impossible, as all he knew about any of them were first names and approximate birthdays. Next he went to his squadmates from Noble Team. They were all, shockingly, alive. Slightly different names, perhaps, or a different life story - but they were all safe.

He eyed the doctor more carefully as his mind wandered. She was healthy. She was successful. She was helping people in incredible ways, improving the galaxy one procedure at a a time. She was happy.

She was everything he had ever hoped she would be.

"Is there something on my face?"

She was looking at him with her head coked slightly to one side, her eyebrows raised quizzically. At times like these, she looked so much like her that it reminded him with a jolt where he had come from.

The old man smiled brightly. "Only the look of someone blissfully unaware of how badly they are about to lose at Shogi," he answered playfully.

She smirked, taking up the challenge immediately. "Do you want to start then?"

"You know the rules, Sara," he chided her as he took hold of his first piece. "Age before beauty."

Jorge laughed as he lost his way through yet another round of Shogi. He looked around again, taking in the world that was not his own. Perhaps he was a stranger in this strange land, but the easy, genuine smile on the face of the young woman before him – the same woman who in a life managed only to carry a cruel shadow of this peace in her life - was more than worth it.

He may never know what came of his original home. But he did know that here, things were right. And that was enough for one old man.