Chapter Text
(Halo Game; Blue Timeline)
~2556 A.D. Three years since the end of the Human-Covenant War~
[Blue Timeline p.o.v]
Although, it had not been a responsibility of the Arbiter, Thel ‘Vadam, by any diplomatic or political means. The Sangheili had felt it right to search for the Master Chief after the disappearance of the other half of Forward Unto Dawn. The Charon-class light frigate that Thel had been piloting through the portal when the incomplete Halo ring had detonated. He had been told it was a lost cause by many, humans and elites alike. But knowing John-117, he was most definitely still alive and somewhere out there, waiting to be found. Thel had taken it upon himself to help rebuild society in Sanghelios and search for John. Whilst also keeping diplomatic peace between Sangheili and humanity. It took one year, seven months, and a week before Thel had located the missing half after receiving its S.O.S beacon during the search. Cortana reaching out had been a relief, almost ecstatic to Thel to know they were both well.
However, during the attempted recovery, what remained of the covenant, a group named the Banished. Staged a small attack. After an exchange of weapon fire, and a few ships blown to bits courtesy of John, the Banished was chased off, fewer than before the attack. Master Chief and Cortana safely aboard Thel’s cruiser ship. From that point more complications followed. The remaining covenant forces had been stirring, searching seemingly. John and Cortana returned to the UNSC and Thel followed the trail left by the enemy to hunt down and squash them. But the three had not been separated for long, running into each other more than once during battles. Fighting side by side. At one point, it was decided that they should travel together since both sides had the same goal in mind and it was better to work with one another than apart.
John, Cortana and Thel spent a large amount of time with one another and bonds of camaraderie strengthened and unexpected feelings grew between Master Chief and Arbiter. Between missions they spent time in the other’s presence, enjoying each other’s company in and outside of the battlefield. The trail left by the Banished went cold. A year of searching went to waste military wise, but fulfilling and eye opening for the spartan and elite. Through some tough negotiating, political meetings and several diplomatic talks ( and much insisting from Cortana’s part). John and Thel were allowed to marry. As a symbol and strengthening of the alliance between humanity and the Sangheili (alongside other groups combined into Swords of Sanghelios). It wasn’t until several months after that the reason for the Covenant’s stirring was discovered as the appearance of a new Halo Ring with some stark differences between that of a normal Halo ring. Which led to the current events three years after the end of the Human-Covenant War.
Chief and Arbiter were on the Halo ring, for now named Theta Halo. Upon the ring’s surface much was different from any other ring. The Environment was jagged with bits and pieces differing in weather. One side could be freezing and only a few feet away it would be desert heat and then the next a calm inbetween. This was occurring on the entire surface. It was strange and very chaotic. Halo rings did have distinct environments but this was unorthodox. A significant chunk of the Theta Halo was missing, three fourths of a whole remaining and still functional.
“This is very unusual. Environments like this shouldn’t even be possible," Cortana stated.
“Do you have a clue what might have caused this?” Thel asked.
“Possibly the missing chunk of the ring, a malfunction in the system when it broke off,” she replied, sounding in thought.
“Stay on mission, you two,” Chief’s voice cut through.
“I am on mission. The Forerunner structure should be two miles up ahead. Visual in 3, 2, and there!” Cortana informed them just as they reached the top of the hill.
The structure was indeed of forerunner architecture in every aspect, but it looked different in shape. It was a tower of sorts, although one side of it looked like a half complete bridge with no other structure near it. There was no chasm, no lake, no ravine, nothing that would call for a bridge. They made their way closer to the structure, eliminating any banished along the way. Something caught John’s attention the closer they got. He started to feel a strange pulling sensation, like something was calling him, asking him to answer. Then it stopped.
“Odd.” Chief stated.
“What troubles you, John?” Arbiter asked, concerned laced in his voice.
“Did you feel that?” he asked back.
“Feel what exactly?” Thel responded confused. He placed his hand on John’s shoulder.
“Like a pull-” Chief sentence was cut short by plasma blast that missed them both.
“More Banished spotted us! Detecting 10 of them ahead. There could be more,” Cortana announced. Arbiter activated his stealth tech whilst Chief made a beeline for the enemy. John was taking some enemy fire, but for the most part unscathed, he took out 5 of them, an unsuspecting brute with a few headshots, two Jackals with a well placed grenade, a grunt, and a hunter, who took a longer while to kill than the rest.
“Brute, six o’clock!” Cortana notified Chief. John managed to dodge the arcing swing of a gravity hammer, though he landed on his back. Master Chief fired upon the brute and it readied to swing its hammer down on him. Within only a split second, the end of an energy sword shot through the Brute’s torso, retracting only when its limp hands let go of the hammer. Its corpse falling forward with a heavy thud.
“Thel! That was clearly ours!” Even though her tone was accusatory, it still held fondness to it. Possibly even a bit of pride.
“My apologies,” Arbiter held out his hand for Chief to take, which he did gladly. He pulled John onto his feet and pulled him close. “Are you, alright?” Thel asked him and John nodded.
“John suffered only minor scrapes to his armor, but he is otherwise fine. Are you okay by chance, Thel?” Cortana asked, concerned after reassuring him. Chief looked up at the Arbiter and let go of his hand, looking him over.
“I am alright. I sustained little to no damage,” Arbiter replied, though Chief still circled Thel to be a hundred percent certain. “John,” Thel took hold of his free hand again, “I’m fine, John.”
“I know, Thel, just wanted to make sure,” he replied. Chief squeezed Arbiter’s hand gently before pulling it away, “Let’s move.”
“You both are insufferable,” Cortana expressed jokingly.
“A pity. I thought you enjoyed our company,” Thel replied with a smile evident in his voice.
“I tolerate your company,” she returned the banter.
“Cortana. Thel.” John sighed, shaking his head.
“Stay on mission. We are,” Thel responded with warmth.
“What your husband said, John,” Cortana replied.
After traveling and fighting their way through the remaining distance, they make it to the building. They entered the structure and searched for the enemy forces that were left. But… none were found. The place was barren, empty. Sealed. The main hallways were accessible to all but other areas seemed to be locked up. Something was wrong, something disconcerting creeped over both Thel and John. The whole thing looked untouched; desolate even. They ignored the wrongness settling in their core, the anxiousness crawling over scale and skin.
“Why have the perimeter guarded and leave the inside of the structure unsecured?” Arbiter asked no one in particular.
“It doesn’t make sense, indeed. But further analyzing the forerunner security…” It took only a couple seconds before Cortana continued, “I can guess the reason it’s empty is because they don’t have someone to open the doors yet. John–”
“We’re walking into a trap.” Chief stopped walking then and there.
“My thoughts exactly,” Arbiter nodded.
Not a moment later shots were being fired from behind them and they ran for cover in another hallway. That’s when John felt that pulling sensation again, calling to him. John felt compelled to follow this time and so he did. He ran through hallway after hallway, taking turns when necessary, and up a ramp or two. He could hear Thel calling after him although it was muffled; distant. He could hear Cortana questioning him but even she was muffled, incoherent. The more he followed the directions of the pull, the stronger the feeling grew, he ran faster. Opening sealed doors quickly and uncaringly. Taking more twists and turns before he arrived at where he had been led to. He stopped running. The half-bridge, a few feet in front of him stood a control panel and at its center stood an archway to nowhere. He could hear nothing but the sound of his own heart beating in his ears. He pressed on, the pulling sensation giving him no other choice. He approached the archway, the pressure was reaching a crescendo the closer he got. The feeling was cut once more and everything came crashing back onto John, his hearing no longer hyper focussed on his heart, his vision no longer focussed solely on the archway, the pain in his lungs, the unforgiving grip on his rifle that was sure to leave his fingers stiff later, and the comforting weight of his Mjolnir Mark VI armor. How long Chief had been standing there was uncertain, he himself had lost track of it a while ago.
“John!” Cortana's voice suddenly exclaimed. He turns to see Thel charging at him, banished behind him.
“Get down!” Arbiter’s voice rang out before he tackled Chief, avoiding plasma shots that ran past them. John’s palm hits a panel on the archway and it comes to life. An accidental mishap he would come to sourly regret no matter how out of his control it was. He feels an added weight attach itself to his arm. Blinding white light encompassed his vision, he clung to Thel and his rifle as they were flung at speeds unknown, a sense of falling horizontally, before everything went dark.
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(Halo TV series; Silver Timeline)
~2552 A.D. Human-Covenant War still ongoing, Planet: Eridanus II~
[Silver Timeline p.o.v]
“Chief.” John wakes up with a sharp gasp, disoriented for a moment, latching onto the arm of a man who has his fingers on his neck’s pulse.
“Wha– What happened?” He asks no one in particular.
‘I shut you down.’ Cortana informs him telepathically.
“You can do that?” He grunts, shoving the man’s hand away from his person. He begins to sit up.
‘I needed to protect Dr. Halsey and your decision-making was compromised…’ She responds. ‘You’re lucky to be alive.’ He turns enough to be kneeling and uses his hands to push himself up. ‘Please don’t get up.’ She pleads, ‘I need to run a systems diagnostic!’
“Where is she?” He asks after he groans, standing up fully on partially shaky legs.
‘I can’t tell you that,’ she answers.
“Cortana, I swear, if you don’t get out of my head– I will–” John said, irritated and pissed to all hell when she cut him off.
‘Slipspace rupture detected. Along with… an unknown distortion?’ She sounded confused and almost whispered the last part.
John stops and slowly turns around, looking up to the opening in the roof of the cave and to the sky. A whistling sound starts to emanate, menacingly.
“Incoming.” John mumbles.
The next thing they knew, the Pioneer was being blasted with heavy enemy plasma fire from a squadron of Covenant banshees as they flew by before splitting and circling back in different directions. John rushed to pick up his helmet and locked it into place over his head. The cave became crowded, people looking for shelter from the war waging outside its walls. Moments later the ground shook and dirt fell from the cave's ceiling. The screeching sound of metal and explosions could be heard and the Pioneer was no longer in the sky. It had been shot down in no less than a few minutes. Most if not all those still aboard it, likely dead. Vannak and Riz had entered the cave during the commotion and headed straight for the artifact.
‘Chief, orders are to get the artifact to Dr. Keyes' ship.’ Cortana notified him, John made his way through the little crowd of people to the exit, trusting Vannack and Riz with the actual physical transport of the artifact. He exited from the cave and a marine ran up to him and handed him an assault rifle.
“Get all noncombatants into the cave,” He ordered, turning slightly nodding to the cave entrance.
“Yes, sir!” The marine responded and moved away. John ignored the commotion behind him as they moved people to the cave. He stowed his rifle on his back and continued further away from the cave and closer to the warthog.
“Chief! It’s at least half a click straight away before you can take the turn up the hill. You’ll be running right at ‘em.” Captain Keyes informed him, ducking near the warthog for the moment. Riz and Vannak loaded the artifact onto said warthog.
“Understood. Riz, Vannak, up front with me.” John started walking again, continuing his path.
“Chief–” before Kai could continue he interrupted.
“-Kai… stay back with the marines, Keep us covered.” He ordered her, not stopping for even a moment.
“Yes, Chief.” Kai nodded and turned away jogging to the marines, sniper rifle in hand. John stopped and stood still, waiting a moment, allowing the others to ready themselves. He retrieved his Magnum sidearm from his hip.
“On me!” He started running, leading the others through the active warzone.
{ “More Banshees inbound!” } Kai spoke over the comms.
“Acknowledged.” He replied he continued his pace.
‘Pod doors opening. Infantry incoming.’ Cortana announced. Multiple pods began to land right in their path, multiple covenant Jackals and Grunts. ‘Two– no, three Covenant Lances in our escape path. Jackal at two o’clock.’ John shot it dead with his magnum. ‘Two more flanking right.’ Soon enough, he had fired his entire magazine to take down a few more. ‘Switch to Secondary.’
“I know how the game is played, Cortana,” he retrieved his assault rifle from his back and began firing on Covenant troops. “Riz, Vannak, break their lines.” He commanded.
{ “Copy.” } Riz stated. They continued firing, taking out more Covenant soldiers. John noticed the plume of blood mist left where a marine once stood at the back of the warthog. He switched focus and ran closer to the vehicle, still firing at any nearby enemies. He saw the exact moment a grunt threw the marine driving the motor vehicle from the driver’s seat. The grunt taking his place. He ran faster jumping onto the warthog’s hood.
“Mind if I drive?” He shot directly into the grunts face and it went down flying out of the moving vehicle. He jumped into the driver’s seat, putting down his rifle to resume control of the warthog. { “Spartans get in.” }
{ “Running to you, Chief." } Riz responded.
{ “On my way. } Vannak said.
Riz jumped in taking her place at the back of the vehicle and firing the machine gun turret. Vannak jumped into the passenger seat beside John. They made it to the slope.
{ “Captain, I’m moving up slope to the landing zone.” } John reported in.
{ “Attention! Drop ship!” } Kai exclaimed. A covenant phantom was hovering above the battlefield. More marines were dying by the minute. They were outnumbered, more would be lost if they didn’t get the artifact to the ship.
“Riz–” John said.
“On it!” Riz managed to take down two banshees.
{ “John, you need to bring that artifact to me now!” } Catherine Halsey shouted over comms.
{ “Roger that.” } John responded stepping on the accelerator when he noticed an explosion and Kai went down. She wasn’t getting up, she was struggling to even move.
“Kai’s hurt. Take the wheel.” John began climbing out of his seat and onto the hood preparing to jump from the speeding mount. Vannak took his place at the wheel.
‘Chief, don’t do this. You need to protect the artifact.’ Cortana declared which John completely ignored, irritated with the A.I.’s persistence.
“Vannak, get me closer to the edge,” He commanded, holding onto the warthog’s railing so he wouldn’t slip off too soon. He took his stance ready to jump. The edge was getting closer and closer.
‘Stop this right now!’ Cortana exclaimed.
{ “John! Stay on mission!” } Catherine Halsey ordered.
“I cannot let her die.” The edge was close enough and without hesitation he jumped, landing on top of a Covenant Banshee. He adjusted his position before retrieving his reloaded magnum and firing into the banshee. The aircraft tilted and he slipped, clinging on with one hand, he roared in irritation. He stowed his magnum and let himself slip a little further to hang under the banshee, near the underside of one of its wings. He stuck his hand into the exposed joint and pulled it, moving it where he wanted to go. Which was to crash right into the Phantom hovering close over the warzone, causing a huge explosion and a little shockwave.to occur. The explosion took out most of the enemy combatants, but a few still remained. Chief reoriented himself and stood back up as quickly as he could. Once firmly on his two feet he tilted his head side to side, cracking a few joints. He focused on the task at hand. Kai was on the other side of the field, unmoving. Many of the remaining Covenant soldiers in his way. A random Jackal unleashed a war cry, igniting his energy shield and started charging towards him and the rest followed suit. He fired off what remained in his magnum’s magazine and when it ran out, fairly quickly, he threw it as hard as he could directly into the face of a nearby grunt. He ran forward before sliding to pick up a shotgun on the floor, ready to fire it at an incoming Jackal. But in that exact moment the Jackal was shot down with the fire power that could have only been from a BR55 service rifle. He instead turned around and fired at the grunt from before. He turned again and continued firing at close by covenant troops. Although, whoever was using that BR55 was being extremely helpful, taking out enemies that were a little too far for him to reach. They weren’t missing even a single shot. John moved forward defending an injured marine, moving them a little before returning to his path. He dodged the energy sword of Jackal and it went down before he could fire a shot at it. He heard the sound of the BR55 closer than before, much closer. He turned to it to see–
“The hell–?” John couldn’t believe it, another spartan here. ‘Why?’ He couldn’t help thinking. Their Mark VI Mjolnir armor was olive colored, golden colored visor, and there was a dent on the right side of their chest plate. Their armor was covered in scratches, battle worn. They didn’t bother slowing to look at him, they kept their sights on the remaining covenant troops.
‘Another Spartan, designation unknown. What’s another spartan doing here? Wait– Something else is here,’ Cortana remarked. Covenant soldiers were falling like flies without any visible reason and the line of dead were pointing and becoming closer to Kai. An elite was beating her, and she could not defend herself weakened as she was.
“Nevermind that!” He re-focused, running for Kai’s position, taking out the very few opponents that were left in his path, at one point switching to a plasma rifle. His path was clear after eliminating one more Jackal. “Hang on, Kai.” John started firing at the Elite the closer he got. That got the elite’s attention directed to him. Good. He was about to throw his plasma rifle away when another elite made itself known, energy sword drawn and active, piercing through the other Elite’s midsection and raising him from the ground, pushing deeper until the other stopped flailing. Once dead, the elite threw the other’s corpse away. They wore completely different armor compared to a regular elite, they wore armor that shined in the light, silver like plating, and it had only one shoulder pauldron. It kneeled in front of Kai and said something John could not hear and he panicked. Without hesitation he started firing at this mysterious elite that killed one of its own. The plasma rifle takes down its shields in a matter of moments. The elite looks up at him to say something that goes unheard over his heart beating in his ears. He throws the weapon away and runs up to the elite to throw fists. The elite in question does not do the same, stowing their sword away at their hip. John throws a punch in its direction and the silver elite dodges it. They grab his other fist before it can make contact, but they don't move to throw a jab in the opening that they most definitely have against him.
“I am not here to fight you, Spartan.” His baritone voice spoke in English? John takes the opportunity, instead of listening, to kick the other’s leg, having them let go of his fist before he lunges to slap his other fist across the elite’s face. The force of it knocks the alien down. John takes the energy sword from the elite’s hip and activates it.
“Chief! Chief, stop. Stop.” Kai breathlessly speaks but to no avail. John aims the sword at the weaker armor underneath the silver plating. Right when he almost makes contact with the endpoints of the sword, he’s tackled. Which makes him miss, leaving a slash wound in the Elite’s side instead of impaling them through. He lands the shoulder first roughly on the ground and the energy sword is torn from his grasp and he’s kicked away by the mystery spartan. Who gets up to run back to the elite. John gets up utterly confused. Did this spartan just defend an elite?
{ “Chief, the artifact.” } Kai spoke. John looked towards the artifact seeing it back on the battlefield instead of on the ship.
‘Covenant Spirit incoming.’ Cortana announced. He booked it to the artifact, running as fast as he could. The spirit was getting closer and closer, it was right on top of the artifact before he was close enough. A brute landed in front of the artifact with a heavy thud, it now stood in his way. He slid to a stop and activated one of the energy shields he stole from a Jackal just in time to block the swing of the brute’s hammer that sent him flying regardless and taking down his shields. He was kneeling looking at the brute that stood tall.
“Cortana…” He spoke out of breath, “I’m gonna need a weapon.”
‘Not sure it’ll help. Although that energy sword might have been useful.’ Cortana responded as the brute used its gravity hammer to pull the artifact into its grasp while walking to its extraction point. John picked up a BR that was laying nearby and began firing at the brute when it was raised into the air and into the Spirit with the artifact. The ship ascended further up back to the frigate cruiser. John roared enraged and fired fruitlessly at the spirit. Then when the Covenant ship turned to leave a pod ejected from it, landing a few meters away, and it was fired upon by the ship before it left completely. The artifact was gone. John marched to the pod and saw a figure in the dust cloud slip out of it, stumbling as they walked just to fall forward onto the ground.
‘Chief, I’m reading a human life form.’ Cortana informed him. He grabbed another plasma rifle nearby a dead grunt and continued his march. He raised the rifle and aimed at the figure on the ground. The dust settled enough for him to see it was a human woman with platinum blonde hair, looking up at him before seemingly falling unconscious. He looked up in defeat and dropped the rifle. He looked around before his eyes landed back on the slumbering form of the woman. The air cleared, the dust settling completely.
{ “I’ve got a civi that just exited a covenant escape pod. Retrieve her when you can.” } He spoke through the comms before walking away. He spotted the mystery spartan with his BR trained on the others that surrounded him and the silver elite. He ran up to them, hearing them shouting.
“Spartan, step away from the Elite! And identify yourself!” Captain Keyes ordered.
“Spartan John-117. And I can not do that, sir.” The mystery spartan spoke keeping close to the elite, shielding them as much as he could.
“Spartan either speak the truth or we will have no choice but to shoot you down. Identify yourself!” The captain commanded, Vannak and Riz had their weapons trained on the kneeling olive Spartan.
“I am Master Chief, Spartan John-117. I have no other name.” He spoke with conviction, no hesitation, like it was really his name while he lowered his rifle.
“You are not John-117. Now speak the truth, soldier. Who are you?” John asked, stepping up next to Vannak looking down at the new Spartan. He was furious that someone would stupidly lie to his captain, his team, and his own face that they were him. When it was obviously and clearly not the case.
“Who are you?” He asked back.
“He’s Master Chief. He’s John-117. Who are you?” Vannak nodded in his direction, keeping his rifle trained on the spartan imposter. The imposter remained silent, maybe now finally realizing he was caught in his lie when suddenly.
“Spartan Designation, Master Chief John-117,” a blue hologram of a woman appeared before them. She looked similar to the A.I. in John’s head although there were very key differences in the A.I. 's dress and appearance. But they sounded exactly the same. “And our friend, the Elite you –” she pointed accusingly at John, “shot and wounded after he saved one of your own Spartans from a Covenant soldier alongside other marines in the process, is currently lying on the ground slowly dying. Which is not much of a ‘Thank you’ now is it?”
“Cortana–” the spartan tried to interject.
“Thel doesn't have time for this, John! And neither do the marines in much more critical condition scattered on the battlefield.” She turned her back to them to look at the spartan in question pointing at the Elite behind him. After, she waved her arm out gesturing around them. This A.I. was definitely much more different in personality than the one in John’s head.
“Help him.” Everyone turned to look at Kai, who stumbled to them from behind, limping.
“Kai, you should not be standing right now,” John stated.
“Captain, the Elite saved my life, the lives of other marines. I– We owe him. Please.” She groaned and fell back to the ground kneeling. Riz stowed her gun away and kneeled beside Kai to help her. Captain Keyes looked between Kai and the A.I. who called herself, Cortana, and then directly at the spartan shielding the elite. Jacob Keyes sighed.
“The Elite will be taken in and kept alive with what little medical help we can give and then be brought for questioning and examination once recovered. The imposter will be taken in for further question. They are to be kept seperate–” Captain Keyes was cut off.
“No, I’m staying with him.” The imposter spoke, standing up with his rifle raised and aimed at them. He stood firm. The air tense, both sides unyielding. There was rustling and then a large four fingered hand, covered in a dark indigo liquid, blood, reached up and gripped the muzzle of the Spartan’s BR slowly lowering it. The Elite shakily stood, his other hand pressed against his wound and whispered something to the spartan, they in turn looked at him. The holographic A.I. walked closer to the duo.
“Thel’s right. John please–” she pleaded.
“No. Not alone. Not without us.” The spartan stated, voice firm.
{ “Let them stay together.” } Doctor Catherine spoke.
{ “Have you lost your mind, Doctor Halsey?!” } Captain Keyes responded.
{ “For once we’ll have a living covenant that is most likely willing to speak to us if he’s willingly working with a Spartan and you want to throw the knowledge we could learn from him away? All because said Spartan is unwilling to leave the Elite’s side after John wounded him when he saved one of my Spartans.” } Catherine reasoned back.
{ “I hate to say it, but Halsey’s right. We know little to nothing about the Covenant still and this Elite must speak english if he’s been working with a rogue Spartan. I could learn more about their language to help speed up the translation of my audio files. But also how can we expect full trust from this Spartan when one of our own did indeed injure his partner unprovoked. He’d have every right to not entrust the elite’s safety to us in such a vulnerable condition after that display.” } Miranda interjected, sounding hopeful.
{ “They are also carrying an A.I. similar to Cortana. If we can’t learn from the Elite we can learn from it about the Covenant. Surely, it knows something after spending however much time with this Elite. Now get them aboard this ship, Captain.” } Catherine continued with an unspoken threat at the end but still sounding intrigued and fascinated by such a prospect.
{ “Copy that.” } Jacob Keyes replied and sighed. ‘Admiral Parongoksy is not going to take this well in any shape or form.’ He looked back to the now duo, the A.I. seemingly gone. The spartan has stowed their rifle, opting to use both hands to keep the Elite on his feets and Jacob could see the special care and worry in the gesture alone. This spartan clearly cared for Elite, in what way was unclear in the moment. But the reaction from only moments ago made sense, they had unintentionally hurt the spartan’s teammate and separation to be cared for without his supervision after such an act was clearly out of the question. He lowered his rifle to rest across his chest.
“Alright soldier, you can stay with the Elite on the ride back to Reach HQ, from there it’s out of my hands,” The Captain relayed.
“Sir, that is unwise–” John spoke up.
“You’ll be escorting them to the ship, Chief. That’s an order. Vannak, Riz, get Kai aboard. Now move it all of you!” He commanded and walked away.
“Yes, sir!” They all replied in unison, even the rogue Spartan. John couldn’t see the mystery Spartan’s face but he could feel the heated glare aimed his way as he started escorting them to the ship. He wasn’t happy about this predicament either. He’d have preferred to stick with Kai. He was the offender that had injured this silver elite in the first place, it was a poor choice on his Captain’s part.
‘You should apologize.’ Cortana insisted and it irked him, but she was right. It would be better if he made amends to clear the air, otherwise it would be a very long ride back to Head Quarters. He turned to the duo, more specifically to the Elite and spoke.
“I’m sorry... For attacking you.” John apologized.
“All is forgiven. I know my face isn’t exactly the friendliest to see on the battlefield. You did not know if I was friend or foe. You did what you thought right,” the elite responded understanding with a wince and a grunt, stumbling a little, leaning on the spartan while he regained strength. His wound leaked more dark indigo blood slipping between his fingers.
“He may forgive you…” the rogue stated looking at him, vizor unreadable, with a cold venom, “but I do not.”
“Noted.” John responded and it was then that he noticed the numbers edged and painted on the Spartan’s chest plate, on the left, undented, side. ‘One-one-seven. How did he get my armor? Unless… No, that’s not possible. He can’t be.’ He did not converse with them further and when they boarded the ship, he only remained near to ensure no one else would make the same mistake and take a shot at the Elite otherwise, he felt as if there would definitely be hell to pay.