A/N

Howdy. I don't really have anything to say other than I'm exhausted and I think I'm gonna be hearing the clicking sounds of my keyboard in my sleep. Anyway, I decided I wanted to try and chug out another chapter for y'all since I was on a roll with it today so enjoy. Also, if you wanna read more of my stuff, I have multiple other stories, two of which I just updated. One is a Bendy and the Ink Machineone, called Living Ink Lies.And the other is a Five Nights at Freddy'sone, called Monty's Handler. If you wanna check them out, great, if not no worries. If anything is misspelled or something just seems wrong, blame it on the fact that I'm writing this at 2 am my time and I'm, severely sleep-deprived. :)

People say Karma is a bitch. Right now, Tai couldn't help but agree. The Spartan's and Naomi had been saying that she wouldn't run into the scientists, and that if, for some reason she did, they wouldn't be able to touch her. They had been saying it for so long that Tai had started to believe their pretty words.

That had been a mistake on her part, that, in all honesty, she probably should've seen coming. The Spartans' had been called out on a mission for Captain Lasky, and Naomi, as per her agreement with Cortana, was back on the New Hope, tasking and managing different intel on different solar systems, looking for news of the Covenant.

She never should've had her back turned. Tai thought she'd learned this early on in life. Technically she had, but she had thought that she was safe, and had been reading too much into the Spartans' and Naomi's words, that she had foolishly let down her guard. Tai technically brought this upon herself.

The teen had been walking along the halls of the ship, desperately trying to find the library the Captain had mentioned to cure her boredom while she waited for the Spartan's or Naomi to return. She'd taken a wrong turn and had somehow ended up down by the labs. She hadn't entirely realized at first. Not until she heard an all too familiar voice.

"Well. What do we have here?" The voice of one Elise Hover stated from behind the teen.

Tai whirled around fast, throwing her hands into a defensive position in front of her body. After one too many run-ins with the wrong sorta people, you get used to having to defend yourself quickly. Now was no different, although Tai wished she didn't need to defend herself at all. She had been hoping to avoid any and all run-ins with her biological mother or aunt. Hell, she would take Doctor Halsey over those two women any day.

"My daughter has finally come back to me after all these years."

Tai growled slightly. She always hated it when someone tried to call themselves her mother. Tai's mother had died back on Talian, as well as her father. And the woman standing in front of her had absolutely no right to try and steal that title away from the one person who had actually tried to raise her properly and care for her during the war, before her life was cruelly taken from her, right in front of Tai's eyes.

"You don't get to fucking call me that, you bastard. My mother died nearly four years ago on the planet you and your damned lacky left me on." Tai hissed, her hands never leaving their curled up position in front of her chest.

She couldn't help but be slightly thankful that the Spartans had taken the time to somewhat correct her fighting stances and show her a couple of tricks that could get her outta nearly any situation, should she find herself in one. Tai had a feeling that now might turn into one of those times, although the Chief said she wasn't allowed to fight anybody on board the Infinity unless the aggressor swung first. And Tai was true to her word.

Tai couldn't say that she wasn't hoping that the woman standing in front of her would try something. She didn't need that much of an excuse to hit the ever-loving shit outta her. Anything would do, but, unfortunately for her, the woman seemed to know that she was walking on eggshells in front of a ticking time bomb and was doing her best to keep herself a good distance away from the girl. The distance to where Tai wouldn't be able to reach her too quickly if she decided to try something.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that, you ungrateful brat! I am your mother and you will show me the respect I deserve!" Elise yelled, her face flushing a dark red in her anger.

"Respect is earned, not given, Elise. And you've done nothing to earn mine, and I doubt you ever will." Tai responded, her teal eyes seeming to glow ever so slightly.

Tai saw it immediately when Elise's facade escaped her. The woman before her turned ugly, her true colors showing their own ugly faces. She went to take a step forward, hesitating when she saw Tai move her hands into a better position to get ready to strike, just in case the woman was just as dumb as Tai thought her to be. And, she was.

Elise pulled her hand back in the matter of seconds, looking close to blowing a casket. Tai knew she would've been able to catch the lady's hand, and yet, she wasn't doing anything to prepare herself for it. In fact, she felt herself freezing as hidden memories resurfaced. Memories that hurt like hell.

Just before Elise could fully bring her hand down to smack her daughter, something caught her by the wrist. She tried tugging harshly in her anger, but turned slightly confused when her arm still wouldn't move. Looking back, her face drained of color and her eyes widened when she caught sight of the absolute behemoth of a man behind her.

He had on the standard army fatigues, and yet, something about him screamed dangerous to her, although, Doctor Halsey had said that she and Kelsie were protected from any possible backlash from the marines and soldiers aboard the ship. So why was it that this man was doing the exact opposite of what Halsey had told her?

Hearing a sound, Elise glanced back towards her bitch of a daughter only to see her surrounded by three other people, two women, one man. They had the same harsh and cold glare as the man who was holding her wrist.

Now that she thought about it, Elise could feel the grip on her wrist getting more and more suffocating, more painful. The grip was cutting off her blood circulation.

"Let go of me." She stated harshly, fully expecting the marine or soldier to realize their own folly. Family matters didn't concern them anyway.

"I don't think I will, actually. Ma'am, do you know who we are?" The man stated, his voice low and gruff. Threatening.

Elise couldn't speak. She felt nervous all of a sudden.

"We're part of the Spartan II program, as I'm sure you're finally starting to figure out. And this kid is one of ours. And we don't let others hurt someone who belongs with and to us. Now, I don't really give a shit about what you have to say, so I'm not even gonna ask you any questions, but I will tell you this. Don't you ever think of coming to find her again. We all know that's exactly what you've been doing since the Captain of the New Hope let it slip that she was with us. If you do, well, I can't guarantee your safety. No one can. Master Chief gave her his permission to defend herself against anyone who she deems a threat to herself. And right now, that's looking to be chalking up to you and the other scientists. So, right now, I suggest you leave quietly before either the Chief or one of our women decide to snap because of the audacity that you seem to be excreting from your very pores."

Somehow, Frederic managed to say all of this in one of the more calm voices Tai had heard coming from the group of Spartans. She was glad they had come back in time to find her down here. Although, she didn't know how she felt about the fact that she had to be saved. They taught her how to properly defend herself in case something like this were to happen. And when the time finally came, she froze.

Tai had thought that her fear of her mother and the other scientists had finally dissipated, maybe even left her. But, alas, here she was in a puddle on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest and keeping her eyes shut tight.

She felt like a child again, when her biological parents would get mad at her for an experiment of theirs going wrong. They used to punish her harshly, and Elise making that same damned motion just brought up a whole other new can of rotting worms. Tai really didn't wanna try and go through everything right now, but she knew she'd have to eventually.

Although, she couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, these darker parts of her past, just before the Spartan program went into full swing, had been kept under too much black ink and red tape. She knew she was wrong in her assumption, the Spartans always managed to find out if she was ever hiding something, and they were likely already gonna try and figure out what it was about that moment that had her freezing where she was, returning to that tiny, fearful kid again.

Tai didn't wanna be that kid. She never wanted to feel that same raw terror that she felt any time an experiment on her would go wrong and she'd be punished for something she couldn't control. Sure, she knew that physically, the woman would most likely never be able to touch her again, not with the Spartans watching her back, and yet that little part of her brain was sending wave after wave of fear down her spine.

She felt like she couldn't breath, and almost immediately, she knew she was about to have a full blown panic attack. She didn't want the Spartans to see her like this. They were barely starting to understand normal emotion from normal humans, and now, here she was, facing one of her worst and yet most ridiculous fears, all because she wanted some damned books to keep her entertained. Guess she wouldn't be needing those books in the long run, though.

The teen had tried to get the Spartans to leave without using words (she couldn't breath, she couldn't breath shecouldn'tbreathshecouldn'tbreathshecouldntbreath), but they either didn't understand what she was attempting to communicate, or they were outright refusing to let her be alone right then.

Frederic sat down right next to her, bringing her head to gently lay on his shoulder. The two women were standing guard just above her, and yet Tai didn't feel like she was being suffocated. John knelt down last, putting himself right in her line of sight, not letting her see any of the world that was going on outside the doors to the laboratory. He put a giant hand on one of her knees, bringing the other up to her face and slowly wiping just under her eyes.

She hadn't even realized she'd been crying. Although, now that she thought about it more, she could feel herself hiccupping with every stuttered breath, and she could hear her whining anytime more tears were brought to her cheeks. Tai tried to pull away, embarrassed, but the Chief wouldn't let her.

The Spartans all sat there, nobody talking, just listening to the ever quieting sobs of their youngest. Frederic was furious, but he could tell the others were as well. And underneath all their fury combined was pure worry. When they had walked in on that scene of Elise about to strike Tai, it took everything in them to hold the Chief back from walking to the woman himself.

Instead, Frederic went, always the one who was more capable of understanding true human emotion. Even he had to admit, it was hard just standing there talking to the person who had caused Tai so much pain and grief. Finally, though, he had gotten her to leave with a veiled threat, sitting down by Tai and letting her rest her head against him.

They were always well aware that the day may come where the teen would have a run-in with one of her biological parents or aunt, but they had never thought that it could've happened while they were away on a mission. They felt as though they betrayed Tai, but they knew she wouldn't see it that way.

Tai didn't know when exactly she drifted into sleep, but she no longer heard anything, nor did she entirely want to. She was also well aware of the sensation of someone picking her up and the soft conversations going on around her as they walked back to the Spartan's hall. Tai almost hoped they didn't put her back into that room by herself.

She didn't have to worry about that. The Spartans decided to dogpile inside the Master Chief's room, and that's where they stayed for the rest of the night and most of the morning. For once, the nightmare's were quiet and Tai finally got a full night's sleep.