Well, here we are, nearing the end of this grand adventure. Huge, huge thanks to BrambleStar14 for beta reading this chapter for us. And thanks to everyone who's joined us along the way.

This is What You Are

Lay your weapons down, they're calling off the war

On account of losing track of what we're fighting for

-Sleeping At Last, 'Mars'

"Monty?" Carolina's voice shredded through the abrupt silence.

The air was still thick with the chaotic argument, the accusations, the pleaded call for peace. It seemed the entire barroom held its breath.

Hannah tracked Lucas across the room—an instinct she couldn't turn off any more than she could stop breathing. He collided with Ian and Isaac. She couldn't hear what they were saying, their heads all pressed together, and she didn't want to. It was a private moment every other person in the room was intruding on. She cleared her throat, trying to draw attention her way instead.

"Anybody else not dead that we should know about?"

Carolina finally pulled her helmet off to scrub her face. "Damn Director. He never said a word to me," she growled.

Phil's eyes met Hannah's across the room. He jerked his chin at Carolina meaningfully.

Feeling as if she had all the grace of a car crash, Hannah put a shaking hand on the Freelancer's arm. "Leadership doesn't care about us," she said, already bracing for a backhand across the face.

"Tell me something I don't know," Carolina retorted.

Hannah chewed her lip, blocking out the full-on sobbing from the reunion behind her. "It doesn't erase anything that happened to you if you choose to walk away. You're free to make something new with your life, or to keep fighting for actual justice—something real. I can't walk away from it either. But it's not worth dying for."

"What is?"

Hannah looked up at Carolina. Her eyes were bleak and auburn bangs were plastered to her forehead. Sharp lines carved around her pinched mouth.

"A system that works. And I mean really works."

"We don't have anything to bargain with. We can't just… stop millions of people from fighting across entire systems. You're still insane."

"Actually," Isaac finally pulled free of Ian's stranglehold, "we might be able to." His deep sunken blue-and-green eyes landed on Hannah with an intensity that brought her to the heart of the storm once again. "Don't you have an in with ONI?"

Every face in the room turned to her. Phoenix, expectant. Freelancers, a pungent cocktail of fascination and understanding. All Hannah could do was shrug and say, "Running to Irons isn't something anyone would do if you knew him."

Harper's lip curled at the memory of her father's office. "Someone else has to have a better idea."

"Every spook is the same," said York. "Does it matter if this one's a moustache-twirling villain like the rest of them?"

Isaac gently pulled free of Lucas' white-knuckled grip—barely, Lucas clung to Isaac's wrist and followed as close as his shadow—and planted himself in front of Hannah. Up close, it was painfully obvious why they had thought he was dead all this time. His skin had an unhealthy blue tinge that made his veins stand out, stark and green. It wasn't just that his eyes were sunken, there were thick bruises under them. Instead of the red flush of the living, his lips were pale purple. The flesh had wasted from his face, leaving the skull looking like it had been shrink-wrapped. How he had been cleared for duty by medical, Hannah had no idea.

"If it's not worth dying for, isn't it worth saving countless lives from?"

She barely had to tilt her head to meet his intent gaze. Despite the bulky Freelancer armour, this reanimated corpse of a soldier was impossibly thin. One sharp gust would carry him away if not for Lucas weighing him down. She wondered what he'd been through to look like this. To feel the thinnest glowing cinder of hope she did. To know what it was like to crawl out of his own grave and swear to the stars, no more.

Hannah held out her white-speckled off-black hand. "Fine. I'll call him."

Isaac's papery lips tugged into a smile she thought would crack and bleed. But he put his blue-green hand in hers and they shook. "Good."

She turned to the rest of the room, all of the waiting and curious and askance faces. "There's no way he's going to agree to this."

Mark and Jason were quiet. The Shaw brothers hadn't moved any closer or farther, choosing to lean awkwardly against opposite ends of a table. She didn't expect either of them would say anything. Would spill that uncomfortable secret.

Strangely, even Harper was silent. But he only truly had eyes for his not-dead baby brother.

"Call your dad and get it over with."

Before Hannah could so much as cringe at the truth thrown at her like a dead thing, Rhodey's fist met Carolina's shoulder.

"Don't be an ass," they scolded.

Hannah shouldered out of the bar before she could start a fight that would only make things worse.

"What did he say?"

Phil hopped down from the bar, data pad in hand, and lifted his brows expectantly.

Feeling uncomfortably scrutinized by the Freelancers, Hannah drifted closer to Phoenix for support. But she didn't miss the way Rhodey and Mark and Jason all pulled together on her other elbow. In seconds, she found herself in the centre of a circle.

She had lead briefings before. Hell, she'd practically taken over leadership of Orange. But she'd never been surrounded by such a big group. She did her best to focus on a few faces. Her friends. Lucas and Mike. York and Rhodey. Mark and Aaron. Even Isaac Harper, whom she had heard so much about that the mostly ghostly soldier felt familiar. It helped that he nodded encouragingly.

Hannah nodded back. "We've got some options for how we can actually pull this off."

Because there couldn't be any doubt after this. They were going to pull it off. They had to. Phoenix and Freelancer were in the business of making the impossible happen.

"What now?"

Data pads had been stowed away. Chalk diagrams had been scuffed from the floor. Helmets sat in laps or lay abandoned on tables. Kyle was the first on his feet, glancing from Freelancer to Phoenix to Hannah and back while his question hung heavy in the air over the motley company.

"We literally just went over this, idiot," said Sota.

Hannah rubbed her eyes and suppressed the heavy sigh trying to escape. She knew Kyle was… not even an acquired taste—he was simply hard to like. But the antagonism was wearing thin quickly. Not that she had expected old grudges and well nursed hatred to evaporate in one afternoon. It just would have been nice if the constant jabs were laid to rest.

Kyle's lips thinned as he bit back a stinging retort, risking a glance to Harper for support. Harper looked to Hannah. "Your op, your rules," he said softly, a trace of his signature careless smirk on his face.

"You always say that when Irons is involved," she complained.

"Focus!" snapped Carolina.

"I guess we get back to the Invention and you guys head back to… wherever it is you live now," said Hannah.

Aaron cleared his throat and waved pointedly at the trashed bar around them.

Oh. That was awkward.

"Well you're not coming back with us," said York.

"And you're not taking your invasion home with you?" Harper asked, far too sweetly.

Rhodey rolled their eyes. "Sure, let me just call the Director and let him know to recall the UNSC forces and surrender the colony. I'm sure that'll go well."

"How about a 'prisoner' exchange?" said Phil, exaggerating his air quotes.

"I think all of Harper's stuff is still in his cell," said Carolina.

"Not a chance. We'll take Jay, Spectrum and Blizzard and be on our way, thanks," he fired back.

"You can't have three of your old teammates for free, jackass."

"Says who? There aren't any rules for this. I've looked."

Hannah got to her feet and held a hand out to quiet both team leaders. "Will you two shut up for thirty seconds? You're giving me heartburn. I'm staying with Freelancer, thank you for asking my opinion. How about we take Mike and they have Isaac?"

The absolute last thing she needed was to split up the happy Harpers' reunion. Or Lucas' long-awaited moment alone with the man he'd nearly wasted away chasing after. And there was no way she needed Kyle—or worse, Aaron—surrounded by Freelancers to piss off for the sheer enjoyment of it.

For a second, Mike looked like he was going to argue, his gaze flicking to Isaac. Then he seemed to come to some conclusion, the tension faded from his eyes, and he nodded. "I'll go."

"Me, too," said Isaac. "That way we've got an ONI insider on both teams. Lucas, you can get in contact with Hannah, yeah?"

Lucas grinned and, for the first time since she'd known her best friend, he looked truly happy. "In my sleep. We need to talk about your lack of cybersecurity, Carolina."

For her part, Carolina turned her nose up at the insult and clearly made a mental note to speak with Nev and Connie later.

"Nothing we can do about the UNSC forces here, sorry," Hannah added, trying to steer everyone back on track.

Harper opened his mouth.

"You kill one soldier and I'll hand-deliver your head on a silver platter, Ian."

Harper closed his mouth.

Jason stood as Mike rose to cross the circle. "I'm going with them, too."

Carolina shrugged. "I'm so shocked, In—"

Rhodey punched her in the shoulder again. "Christ, give it a rest for a change, boss lady. You're giving me heartburn."

Though Jason had stiffened at the start of the cruel taunt, he didn't hesitate to make his way over to the Phoenix side. That is, until he was face to face with Hannah. She gazed flatly up at him as he clearly waited for her to move out of his way.

Mike skirted them without so much as a glance. Nobody else gave them that privacy.

Hannah stood firm. Jason didn't move. Finally he opened his mouth and she cut right across whatever he was about to say. "Go around if you're going. I was here first and you're wasting everyone's time."

He saluted stiffly. "Ma'am." It was hard to tell if his tone was soldier-bearing empty or sarcastic. She decided she didn't care as he edged around her and sat down in Mike's empty chair.

"It's so nice that everyone's getting along," grumbled Aaron.

"You." York pointed. "I like you."

"Sorry, mate, I'm spoken for." Aaron patted Geist's knee with a grin.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"This is what I mean," said Hannah. "You're all the fucking same and you're perfectly capable of getting along. Can we go home now? I'm getting crabby because I'm missing my evening meal."

"You're always crabby, Bliz!"

"And you never know to quit while you're ahead, Paul. I'll kick your ass before chow time if I have to." But she turned away, smiling, and found herself filing out of the destroyed bar between Rhodey and Mike.

"What's the meaning of this?" The Director lifted one eyebrow as Mike, Hannah, Carolina and York lined up neatly at his desk.

"Innie invasion?" guessed York.

"We secured this VIP after the capture of Cal and Monty, sir," Carolina cut in with a glare at York.

"Capture?" Church echoed. The excuse sounded flimsy to everyone, but it was the best they had come up with. It was too risky to read Church in on the plan.

"Harper found out who Monty really is. As for Cal, I wouldn't be shocked if he went with a smile on his face. I wasn't there," Carolina said.

Church's focus pinned York. "I presume you let your squad member out of your sight at the critical moment as well?"

"Oh, no, I saw the whole thing, sir. Michigan and Oregon tried to break up the fight."

"I see." Hannah found herself the object of Church's attention. "And what were you doing so far from your battle buddy and team leader?"

"That's firefights for you, sir," she told the metal wall behind Church's head. "Got pinned down after the rest of them moved. Oregon and California were first on the scene to assist."

"Baxter, is it?" Church swept on, well aware who he was addressing. "Why weren't you executed on the spot?"

"I wish I knew, sir," Mike said with a helpless smile. "One moment I was moving to a better overwatch position, then next I was trying to evade that big white operator—Maine? Woke up hogtied in the back of a Pelican."

"You're always telling us to gather intel where we can. Of all the members of Phoenix, I'd say we lucked out with Crosshair. Sir," said York.

"How so?"

"No offense to one of the URF's best snipers, but you suck at hand-to-hand, man."

"I'm a little past the point of offense," Mike said mildly.

"See? He doesn't talk back, he doesn't sass and you don't want to punch him for looking at you. I'm looking forward to our talks."

"Put your VIP in the brig where he belongs. Dismissed."

The four rogue operators heaved a collective sigh of relief the moment Church's office door closed behind them. Carolina turned to York. "Get him settled in a cell."

"I'm coming with you," said Hannah. "We have some catching up to do."

Mike looked like he wanted to pat her shoulder or ruffle her hair as he followed York toward the lift.

York pulled the chair into the narrow cell, spun it around and straddled it backwards, arms crossed over the back. Hannah leaned on the wall nearby, apparently studying her nails, while Mike sat cross-legged on the floor.

"My dad told me what happened to Isaac," said Hannah, keeping her head bowed the way she used to when she visited Mark. So nobody watching the security feed could read her lips.

Mike craned his neck to catch York's eye. "I don't know."

"I'm sure you can tell us something," York said, playing along.

"ONI had a retrieval team on standby. They didn't just send you in to burn the team. They meant to scoop up anyone who happened to survive. And the evidence you'd been there, I bet," explained Hannah.

"We were sent out with only vague intel," Mike went on. "Be there at a specific time, dig in, use what we could find, then get out before anyone even knew we were there."

"Risky, with what everyone knows about that location."

Hannah nodded.

"I should have done more. I should have known better. I let the team down. That's why I'm here, right?"

York smiled in that easy, genuine, shining way that won everyone over in the end. Hannah still couldn't tell when he was faking it. If he ever was. "Tell yourself whatever you need to. Doesn't change the facts, does it?"

Mike dropped his gaze to his hands. "I can't take it back. It was my fault. I let him out of my sight and he got hit. We were on a timer and none of us would have made it out if we'd taken the time to help him. It wasn't an easy call, but it was my mistake that forced Phil to make it. Everything that happened after—Lucas, me—I caused it."

"Afterward, ONI did what they could to patch him back up. There's some kind of immune condition he's constantly fighting. You should see the list of meds he's on. They've got it mostly controlled, but," she shrugged, "you saw him. Kid's on the verge of organ failure and the DNA they're using to grow the cloned organs keeps propagating the condition. ONI won't give him a medical discharge because of his training and brain. He's practically a spook by now, but ONI really kept him around to dangle in front of Ian if the need ever arose."

Mike nodded. "He always was the smart one. Surprised it was kept as confidential as it was. UNSC could have used it against us years ago. None of us would have fought back."

It was York's turn to shrug. "The reasons don't matter."

"Just matters what we do." Hannah drew her data pad from under her arm and began to circle the cell. "The others got back. Lucas wants to know where we're meeting and when."

"There's an abandoned spaceport on Kisin. Kappa system," said Mike.

Hannah's steps faltered.

"Ian's private joke. The last place anyone would think to look."

"Didn't Kisin get glassed a few years back?" asked York.

"Not fully. Covenant was forced offworld, actually. Not too many people know that. There was a massacre at the spaceport, but the URF picked off the surviving Covvies. Lost a cruiser in the space battle, but forced them to call off the siege."

"I want to go."

York fixed Hannah with one of the stares that cut through her barriers. "Look, I understand that you have a complicated history with Phoenix, but I'm not sure that's the smartest idea."

She waited a beat, curious whether or not Mike would voice his own opinion. He didn't. He watched her with almost the same stare. Defeated, she said, "I was at the Massacre of Kisin." She glanced at Mike. "That's where Phoenix found me."

"That's what made it the perfect place to hide. Even if you found out the Covenant pulled out before they completely glassed it, you wouldn't think about going."

York leaned forward. "Say what you want about the lunatic, he's smart."

"Too smart," said Hannah.

"The sooner you go, the better your odds. They'll move again once they get over the fact that Isaac's alive. They'll expect me to give the place up, like Jason gave up Byzantium and Hannah gave up Gaulmec."

"There wasn't anything left on Gaulmec," said York.

"There wasn't anything much before we showed up. Wouldn't have been anything left when they pulled up the base. Hope you didn't get sunburned in that dustbowl," said Hannah.

"We had a nice walk, thanks."

She hadn't been privy to the debriefing when the Freelancers had come back from the recon mission. And there hadn't even been a remote chance of her being part of that assignment. It was strange to think the base she had helped build didn't exist anymore. Byzantium still stood. People could still walk down the halls haunted by the scars Phoenix had left behind. Someday Hannah could go back to her old quarters. She could stand in the gym. On the edge of the roof. At the obsidian monument. But nobody would ever sit in the break room where she had shared a blanket and bowl of popcorn with Lucas.

"I'd give you less than a day before Kisin gets wiped. You'd better move fast if you want to catch Harper this time," said Mike, dragging Hannah back to the present.

York grinned. "That makes it a trap."

Mike smiled back. "Is it worth the risk?"

Nine hours later, Hannah opened her locker. The locker room was a flurry of activity: lockers banging shut, the chorus of suit plates clicking into place, the rattle of ammo boxes and trigger locks drowned out the hushed conversations. Hannah couldn't get over how quiet the Invention armoury was before an op. Where Phoenix babbled and joked, where Orange had gone over the plan a final time before drop, the Freelancers prepped in near silence.

Nearby, Rhodey sighed and rubbed their aching hip.

"Need a hand?" asked Hannah, bending to tighten her boot bindings.

"I'm good," they said. "Slept on it wrong."

She straightened and set her shoulders. "You sure?"

They nodded and limped to the nearest bench so they could sit to pull their underweave on. "This is nothing. Four out of ten for pain. Done combat at an eight before."

"If you're lying, I'll kick your ass."

"Gotta catch me first. Can't do that on your little legs, you know." They flashed a grin.

Once their armour was on, the limp was barely noticeable, so Michigan didn't push it.

"Okie dokie, team." York clapped his hands once and rubbed them together like an excited kid. "Alpha squad's on the front door today because I know it's your favourite. You can send me a thank-you card and flowers when we get back. Long-stemmed roses are my favourite, preferably white."

"Thought we were on a timer, dude," grumbled Sota.

"Right you are! Here's the plan. Get in, exchange hostages, get the hell out in time for the 'meat loaf' they're serving tonight. Nobody fires a shot, nobody gets a medbay vaycay. Questions?"

Blizzard could practically hear the Freelancers blinking in the silence. She was once again struck by how familiar this was. The easy locker room bantering. It reminded her so much of Aaron and Lucas interrupting Harper's strategy meetings afield.

"Cool. Let's roll."

The last time she'd been here, there had been impossibly tall, densely packed trees circling the spaceport. There had been broken corpses slumped over railings and collapsed on the stairs, tangled together with the bodies of their killers.

The last time she'd been here, the ground had been torn up and turned to thick sludge that tried to suck her down into the depths of the crushing dark planet. Blood mixed with muck and glowing blue, purple, orange vital fluids of the Covenant army.

The last time she'd been here, the sky had been grey and choked with smoke as the orbital bombardment began just beyond the horizon. The ground shook with the Wraiths shelling the drydock and the ODSTs landing like a swarm of flies.

The last time she'd been here, different soldiers had marched at her side. Now, Freelancers stepped in time with her phantom limbs.

Now, the land was a shattered mirror reflecting the pale blue sky. It would be another dozen years before the first brave weeds cracked the hostile earth. It would be another century before the saplings reclaimed the burned-out shell of the UNSC facility.

Now, in the bowl of the lake Sergeant Hannah Steele had boiled away, sat another prefab Innie base.

Now, wrought iron stairs built into the side of the cliff she'd nearly buried herself in led the way down to the lakebed.

Now, she climbed down instead of up. A Phoenix touched her elbow, giving her strength.

"I want to go back to where…" She shook her head.

Rhodey and Mike Baxter shared a look, his careworn eyes finding their visor unpolarized.

"Back to where they died," she finally managed, a flight of steps later.

"We'll go," he said.

Rhodey nodded.

Alpha squad met Phoenix at the bottom of the stairs. As usual, Harper had his helmet tucked under his arm and Hunter at his side. His brother stood in Blizzard's customary spot, Rook having been shuffled into Crosshair's. Not replacements—Phoenix didn't believe in replacing anyone. But helping fill out the gaps left in the team was another story.

York rubbed his hands together again. "This is really happening, huh?"

Harper grinned. "I've been dreaming about this for years, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, Boss, I know. You ain't slept in months. I ain't slept in months. Geist keeps threatening to smother me in the middle of the night."

It made her breathe a little easier, hearing Firefly's familiar jokes.

"Wait," said Circuit. "I've heard this one before. Get some new material, mate."

"Fuck you. Just because you're happy and shit," Firefly growled.

It was a part of Phoenix the Freelancers had never seen before and York hesitated, clearly uncertain how to proceed.

"You know," said Falcon, "it's rude to stare."

That seemed to give York the opening he'd been searching for. He hooked a thumb broadly. "We brought your Mike back."

"We brought our ship." Harper gestured equally vaguely. "Thanks for the Mike. What are the chances we can have our Hannah, too?"

"Did you bring us anything else?"

Isaac raised his hand, reminding her immediately of Circuit. She wondered who had picked the habit up from whom. "I confirmed the site and personnel detail. The records we want are onsite."

"You work quickly here," said Rhodey.

"Kinda necessary. Your other squad already at the hangar?" asked Falcon.

York nodded. "We wanted to pay our respects up on the hill first."

Hunter stepped forward. "I'll go."

"Me, too."

"Ian—" she started.

"Me, too." Mike touched her elbow again.

"I really just want to be alone."

"C'mon, Steele, don't be stupid. Nobody here's gonna let you go alone," said Firefly. "You can walk out ahead if it'll help."

In the end, all of Phoenix—including Spectrum and Rook—plus Rhodey, York and Oregon joined her. Far more than she would have liked, but it would have wasted too much time to argue. They let her run a hand over the crater in the lakebed where she'd landed. The pod had been removed by some Innie grunt soldier months ago, but the carbon from the melted plating still coated the hole.

The spaceport itself had collapsed under the strain of time and destroyed space elevator. Somewhere deep beneath the rubble, Douglas White slept, surrounded by the Brute pack that had ambushed him. She heard the echo of his order in her head, telling her to take the others and go before the Brutes cut off the only escape.

There had been fierce fighting in the front yard. Now there were neat rows of URF Warthogs where she'd desperately tried to close Pascal Gregor's gut wound. The energy sword had nearly bisected her medic. She'd needed his skills to save him, but the Elites had still been hunting them, barking for blood. With the responsibility of having to get the ragged remains of her team to safety, and the always-moving goalposts of accomplishing the mission hanging over them, she'd made the decision to leave the dying medic behind.

Beyond the shredded chainlink fence, the ground turned to glass again. Its calm surface hid Theresa Roberts. There had been the hiss of a plasma grenade. A split second of swearing before the ODST hit the deck and rolled behind the rock she'd just cleared. It had been quick, at least. Senseless, too.

Which brought them to the pit. Sitting on the lip, it was too easy to see it in her memory. Instead of the impossibly smooth sides, it had been jagged with rocks and bony Jackal bodies. The wreck of a Warthog burned. Here, where she sat, Dominic Thompson had taken two bursts to the chest from a beam rifle. One moment he'd been at her side, breathing and swearing and alive. The next, he'd gone to a knee and coughed blood. Groaned. Pushed her into the crater. Down into the trapped Jackal pack.

She still didn't know which of them had gotten the better end of the bargain.

After a brief forever alone with the memory, Phoenix settled around the pit's edge, too. Rhodey settled, weight on their good leg, just behind her. Oregon and York sat wherever there was space, ending up between Rook and Hunter.

"I found you," Mike said once everyone was comfortable. He pointed into the pit. "Right there. We didn't know what would get you first. Blood loss, shock, drowning, the burning Hog. I couldn't leave you. I heard you breathing."

She couldn't speak. But she could still feel the gentle hands lifting her. Still hear the rushed conversation as he explained how they were going to get her up safely.

"I didn't recognize you until we got to the Pelican. All of the battlefields we were sent to clean up and there you were. Coming back into my life when I'd given up," said Jason. He laced his hands atop the helmet in his lap. Across the yawning mouth, he shot her a wry smile. "Guess we came into yours when you'd given up, too."

Harper cleared his throat. "Hannah was a Phoenix through and through. She just worked. Fit right in, even if you fought it. It was never easy, but… I learned a lot from you. For what it's worth, I'm glad we could save you."

"I never heard this story before." Mark let out a short sigh. "I don't blame you for choosing Phoenix after all of this. I don't blame you for not wanting to let the war go on. You've seen both sides. If anyone has a clear view, I trust you to have it."

She stood, turning to Rhodey. "That's where Dom died. He saved my life. Got me into cover before the Skirmisher could zero me. He didn't know there was a whole squad of Jackals down there. I don't know if he went easy or not."

Geist shook his head. "It was quick."

Rhodey held their hand out. "They wouldn't want you to waste your breath when there was work to do. Let's get moving, Mich. Blacksite to break into, right?"

Hannah took their hand, holding her other one out to Isaac, who pulled Lucas up in turn. For a second, there was an unbroken chain of Freelancers and Phoenixes. For a second, they were just a team of tired soldiers. Despite all of the jokes over the years that Hannah would never hold hands in a circle and sing songs. All the jokes Freelancer made about the URF.

If that could come true, so could Hannah's dream of preventing another Massacre of Kisin. Preventing another Orange. Like she had promised she would, all those months ago.