Work Text:
Reach was burning.
.
Ash
.
Dust
.
Sand
.
That was all that was left.
.
.
.
All that was left.
.
.
.
.
Stone, soil, plants, animals….
Life
.
All turned to glass
.
.
.
Corpses littered the planet.
.
.
.
Warriors, civilians, innocents. . . . Spartans.
.
.
.
All those that she couldn’t save
.
.
Wasn’t
.
Wasn’t fast enough
Strong enough
.
.
.
Slow
Weak
.
.
.
.
Dying.
Reach was burning, and she was burning with it.
Minutes?
Hours?
Days?
How long had she lain here.
Surrounded by alien corpses,
.
.
Alien blood
.
alien wreckage,
alien words, ideals, beliefs
Alien,
Alien,
Alien!
.
.
.
Alone
.
Dying alone.
The sky was orange, tinged with violet,
Like her armor
Like a glassing beam
Like covenant hulls
.
There was no true purpose to the color. Only a desire to take what was alien and turn it against the invaders. (she had lived in fear of purple shapes in the sky as a young child, she would make them fear it too.)
.
.
Her breath was shallow
Slow
.
Dying
Too many burns, armor boiled, seeped into her skin.
Holes in her body
Limbs; bloody, molten.
Ash in her lungs,
Pain
AGONY
Mind and body too destroyed, ravaged , to feel
To grieve
.
Only pain,
acceptance,
and silent tears.
.
.
Reach was burning
She was burning.
Her mission was complete, Cortana delivered and the autumn escaped. And she was left to lay down in an occupied grave.
She had refused to lay down and die
She wanted to drag the entire fleet down with her to hell
To drown them in their blood and hers.
.
.
.
.
A purple hull drifted overhead. Lights coming to life.
Soon her body would be turned to glass. And she would be forgotten. Lost to the sands of time.
Why did it have to hurt so much?
The child in her screamed.
She had lost everything when she was 6 years old. Her home, family, everything… Gone and turned to glass. She was a child in a monster’s body. A machine, a tool of blood, fear and death.
What was she?
Was she human? Or machine?
Had she been alive? Or had she died with her family?
The sky turned purple, plasma raining from the heavens, hungry and gleeful as it came down to consume her, to burn her.
No helmet to hide behind, no armor to survive with, no weapon to fight back.
She would burn, she would fall.
Then the purple turned blue, time slowed. A face, and alien face, but gentle, kind, loving.
“You have done so well, fought so hard. Let me show you what you fought for.”
The world shifted, the plasma drawing closer. 7 rings floated above her. A Spartan, green armor, Cortana.
Battle after battle
And victory,
Death, terror, loss, so much loss
But victory, survival, peace
“Your sacrifice has done so much, achieved so much. It is time to rest.”
The beam struck, and the world went white.