June 18th 2556, abandoned Covenant station.

"God damn it," Six muttered as she ran though the corridors of the alien base.

She had hoped that this would be a simple smash and grab, but that turned out not to be the case as a Covenant task force was already on the station. It was probably a good thing that she went in alone to secure fuel for the nomad fleet. But this complication made it harder for her to get out so that the fleet and jump to another system. Plasma fire peppered around her sometimes impacting her shields as elites and jackals behind her gave chase.

She slid down the final length of a corridor as she turned and fired her assault rifle at the covenant forcing them to take cover before she pushed herself into a run. She almost made it to the hanger where the pelican waited for her, but an arm appeared and knocked her off her feet. She spun before landing on her back and a sword was pointed at her heart. Gulping, she looked up seeing an elite looking down at her with sword in hand.

"What are you doing her demon?" it asked but Six tightened her mouth.

The elite growled, but then blinked. It moved its sword to her neck as it crouched down and picked up the circular tag that she had gotten on Reach. He looked at it and read it before looking at Six.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"An elite on Reach, he was protecting some kids," she replied.

Bako 'Lufam walked into his chambers where Bako 'Falcrum waited for him.

"Brother, it seems to have found something interesting," he said as he placed a video emitter on the desk in front of 'Falcrum.

The emitter activated and showed a human warrior fighting against a group of Kig-yar. It didn't take them long to take the warrior down and advance. But they failed to see him stand up with a grenade in hand until it was too late. It detonated killing all in the area, but the recorder continued to show several small humans run away from the area.

"Younglings," 'Falcrum muttered.

"Indeed, but see what the human did. He protected them, even if he restored to killing himself. It seems humans place a great deal of protection to their non-combatants as well as their younglings," 'Lufam said.

Falcrum nodded. "Though death they still fought to the end to protect their young,"

Lufam nodded. "Their young are the future of their race. Innocent victims of a war that they have little to do with outside of existing. Humans will protect them to the death,"

The elite stood and lowered his sword. "What did he say?"

Blinking, Six tried to speak the Sangheili tongue.

Thankfully, the elite translated for her. "'You have done well. I am no murder of, take care of them' it seems that my brother stuck to the warrior code,"

"Warrior code?" Six asked.

"Most of us didn't understand why the Prophets decided to target humans. Why you weren't offered membership. It went against our code to kill innocents," he said as he deactivated his sword. "My brother refused to kill innocents, the younglings,"

Six blinked. "Your brother?"

"Yes," he then offered her a hand to help her up.

Six was hesitant but was helped up. "I'm sorry, but it was war,"

He nodded. "I'll let you go, maybe we'll see each other some other time," he waved his hand and dismissed his followers.

Six nodded and turned to the pelican, only taking one look back before boarding.

OOOOO Kusrago Planetside, suspected Forerunner cave, Present.

The warthog slided to a halt before Six exited with two of her fellow wolfs. A squad of elites was before he and the two groups walked up to each other.

" 'Falcrum," she held out her hand.

"Six," he replied grasping her forarm and the two shook. "It has been a while,"

"It has, you know what we are looking for?"

"In a fashion," he said before taking the lead into the cave.

OOOOO

Locke just watched the woman hanging by her hands as a doctor looked her over. Her skin had been darkening and lightening in weird ways, almost like computer circuit boards and wires. They didn't glow or pulsed, but there was an effect that he couldn't place his finger on. Other than that, she had several ports on the back of her head that were turning red. He didn't want her to die before John got here. It took several minutes before the doctor was finished and looked to Locke.

"She's fine, she's just going though a form of withdraw from the tank," he explained as he rubbed his blad head. "Her brain and body are readjusting to what it thinks is her original form. I am concerned about her atrophied muscles and head ports. If we plan to use her, we need to get them sorted,"

Locke however shook his head. "Once removed, she cannot be reconnected. Once we kill 117, we will kill her as well. She's of no use to us,"

The doctor just nodded. "Such a shame, we could use and expert like her,"

"Hive has all the experts we need. Not to mention there's that connection. She's a liability no matter what we do,"

The doctor sighed and nodded but before he could say anything else, one of the troopers ran in.

"Sir, he's here," he said and Locke smiled.

"Good, go join the defence," he ordered.

The soldier nodded and made his way back to the defensive line.

"I'd better go, I don't want to get caught in the firing line," the doctor said as he packed up.

"Very well," Locke said as he pulled a pilled and shot the doctor though the head.

The dead body slumped over the bag with blood pouring out of his head. Locke pulled up a seat and sat down waiting for the Spartan to arrive. Sounds echoed in the base, gunfire, grenades and the occasional scream of terror. But he just tuned them out as his eyes focused on the door in front of him waiting for the green giant to emerge. It didn't take long from John 117 to emerge from the door, his armour partly painted by blood of some of the kills he made.

Locke smiled as he stood. "117," he said. "So glad you made it,"

"Give her back, now," John said forcefully as he took a step forward.

"Ah, I don't think so," Locke said as he pulled a small device from his pouches and pressed it.

"AHHHHHHHH," the woman cried out as electricity shot though her though the chains.

After a moment Locke released the button and the surge of electricity stopped. He could feel the stare that John gave him though the helmet. The fire in his eyes was one like the heat of a sun. It burned like the sun, and he liked that.

"I also have a dead-man's switch attached to my heart. Kill me and you kill her," he taunted. "Drop your weapons,"

Seeing no other option John did so and kicked his weapons out of the way.

"Good," Locke said before moving forward slamming his fist into John's helmet.

That forced the chief to back up and on the defensive. "J….john …"

There was a sound of an energy blade activating and all of a sudden, the woman was cut down from her restraints. Locke looked over to see the Arbiter catch the woman in hands as John grabbed him by the breastplate.

"Now you pay for hurting Cortana," he said before headbutting the former ONI operative sending him back.

Dazed he grabbed his battle rifle and pointed it at the Chief as he approached. He managed to get a burst off, but John swiped at the rifle knocking it to one side sending the burst everywhere. He then followed it up by slamming his fist into the raised rifle breaking it in two while hitting Locke in the face while doing so. The operative dropped the weapon and tried to take a fighting stance but John followed his previous attack with a one two to the chest and a kick causing him to stagger and fall to one knee.

He then pounced only for John to use his momentum the throw him into a wall, denting it. He staggered forward in a daze before noticing the barrel of a pistol facing him before his brains painted the wall behind him. What was left of Jamerson Locke slid down the wall as John turned to the nude form of Cortana and walked up to the Arbiter.

"Let's get her out of here," he said.

OOOOO Later that day, Alpha base.

John looked over Cortana's sleeping form. She was covered with a simple white sheet, which was more than the Imperials ever gave her. Other than the lack of hair, she was still as he remembered, but taller and with flesh. He couldn't help but smile as he looked at her, to get her back… there was nothing in his mind that he could say or feel. It felt like a part of his was returned.

Dr Fredrik Lance pushed his chair over to the chief and stood. "She's doing fine," he said calmly. "I'm already beginning to work on her atrophied muscles and those ports on her head. But there is something I want to show you," he led the Chief over to a set of holographic x-rays. "This is a normal human brain, this is a Spartan brain, this is an Imperial Spartan brain and this is Cortana's brain,"

Each of the images was like a web of wires and dots, with each one had more than the last. Cortana's had more than any, but the while Imperial Spartans had more it was significantly less than hers.

"This is an EEG of her brain along with some other subjects," the doctor said using his pen to point at the holograms. "As you can see her brain activity is off the damn charts, even by Spartan standards. It seems to me that her brain was made with this in mind, almost like a superhuman computer. My guess is so that she can process all of the information that she takes in and interpret it. Human brains have always been more complex and powerful than even our most advanced super computer. But even then, there is a limit to how much a brain can take. So, a custom-made brain that is 10 times as powerful as a Spartan brain is needed. Augmentations are good and all, but don't do what the Empire need them to do. So, this is what they do,"

John nodded. "But why did they use Cortana and not create them out of hand?"

"Intelligence, knowledge and experience. It's one thing to build a brain, but that doesn't mean it works. Sure, you can give it something to solve, but out decision making is based on years of knowledge and experience. Having intelligence is one thing, but acting on their intelligence is another. They cannot just create super intelligence out of hand, they need to give that brain experiences that it can use to make decisions," the doctor paused before looking at John. "Have you ever heard of human-AI?"

"I cannot say I have,"

The doctor just nodded. "I'm not surprised, it's not a well-known concept. But the basic fundamentals of it is that when an AI nears rampancy, it's personality, knowledge and everything that makes that AI who it is into a human body. But due to the rampancy problem there was a risk about multiple personality disorder, so it was never tested. If the Empire has solved that particular problem, which it looks like, it may be useful for the rest of us,"

"That does sound like an idea," John agreed. "It means that while an AI is cut off from the ship, they can similar tasks as an AI,"

"It is a bit of a downgrade, from controlling everything on a ship to being relegated on a terminal. But I think that's what those ports can be used for. She can jack-in to systems and act as a second AI. Kinda like the Matrix…"

"Matrix?" John's brow raised.

"Old Earth sci-fi film," the doctor waved his hand. "It was about how humans were used as batteries for machines and locked into a simulation,"

John just nodded before turning to look at Cortana's body. "So, she's fine?"

"More or less, but she will need physical treatment in order to fix that atrophied body of hers. Shouldn't take more than a month and a half," he stood and placed his hand on the Chief's shoulder. "I'll take care of her, you have a war to win,"

"Thank you," John said before taking one last look over Cortana before leaving.