Archive of Our Own

The discomfort was to be expected after falling from space, as they had. Only a short time ago, the Forward Unto Dawn was pulled into Requiem's gravity well and shredded apart, as debris and the two unfortunate wanderers were sent careening down onto the alien world. They were searching for a way to clear up the faint signal, and Chief drove their scavenged Warthog toward the designated waypoints Cortana was able to select with steely determination. When Cortana had timidly suggested that he slow down, she was immediately shot down, metaphorically speaking by the spartan. If she did not know better, she could have sworn they had accelerated. Cortana mused in frustration as the Chief drove through another valley, the vehicle slamming over uneven terrain and covenant corpses.

And what does he do after this cataclysmic disaster? Does he stop to breathe? Does he allow me to perform diagnostic scans, and enable the biofoam seal his wounds properly? No, he doesn't. Of course, not. He is too stubborn to admit he needs to rest. In fact, if he ever died, he would probably be too stubborn to accept it and just keep going, a metal suit supporting a rot- Cortana felt a shock of pain as visual images, senses, and a memory of the smell of the flood from her time on High Charity swirled to the forefront of her mind. Cortana cut short that mental pathway quarantine program for diagnostics later. Whoa, girl, re-focus, cynical apathy is not going to get the Master Chief or you out of this.

The idea of negative apathy instantly returned Cortana to her earlier observation, the Master Chief was uncomfortable with her presence, more specifically in his mind. She had sensed it when she was reunited with 117 in the control room of Delta Halo, a small wince as his mind had to readjust to allow her in, all mishappen from the raw data of the Halo ring. That wince was short and tempered with the knowledge that Chief's vitals began to stabilize as soon as she was there. She had seen this same discomfort more pronounced when he rescued her on High Charity and inserted her data chip with a sharp hiss of pain.

John came, he told me that I would not fall into my abyss, that he was here...that I could look into it, but nothing would, that he wouldn't let anything happen... much good that promise did-  no! I have to keep it together.

Cortana suddenly became aware that her "other"'s mind was focused inward, on herself. The "other" was what Dr. Halsey had described the hypothetical awareness of the data chip carrier. In theory, it could go both ways, though on reach that had been mere speculation. Here, on reach, on the ark, on Requiem, having the "other" had become a necessary part of life.

"You've grown strangely quiet". Cortana quipped, using an old expression they had gotten in the habit of using to let the "other" know that they knew they were thinking of them.

Chief ducked his chin to his chest a moment, a Spartan gesture of thoughtfulness or embarrassment, before looking back up to drive.

"I was about to say the same thing," John said shortly, swiveling the wheel to the right as he avoided a charged plasma shot.

Cortana grew quiet as he focused on killing the small group of jackals, a cluster of shields was no easy thing to destroy with only a warthog and an assault rifle.

He whipped around the rock, wheels spitting mud and gravel up in the air, and came around for another pass, this time he slammed the pedal down as he barreled towards the soldiers. At the last instant, he rose up from the seat, spraying at the exposed flanks of the Kig-yar as they rolled away from the oncoming vehicle. Their bodies crumpled like paper as they shrieked in pain, and Cortana could see their charged pistols firing useless rounds into the boulders nearby.

"All targets eliminated," Cortana said in a forced chipper voice.

John dropped back into his seat and began to turn the Warthog around to continue along their route when Cortana stopped him.

"Wait a moment."

"What's wrong?" He asked in concern, the vehicle stopped, and his hand reached for his rifle in the work of an instant.

Cortana smiled inwardly, if there was a line of code for such a feeling, at his complete trust.

"The area appears to be clear of hostiles, and I need to run some tests."

"On the Mjolnir?" He asked.

"On me." She corrected.

Chief's vitals spiked, and his shoulders tensed in concern.

"Why?" He demanded, more harshly than he intended, no doubt.

Cortana let her mind run a few cycles while she processed the best possible answer. The Chief would never admit to being in pain, least of all that she could be causing him pain...but the man deserved to rest, at least a moment free from her pain and rampant thoughts.

"I am experiencing internal processing feedback, it could be from my sub-processes or it could be from our neural link. I think you might need to remove my data chip for a moment."

"Meaning what?"

"I don't know; I'll know more once I run the tests," Cortana said.

The Chief shifted in his seat with impatience and surveyed the area quickly.

"Fine, there's a small structure 10 meters from here, I'll check it out."

Cortana just put a waypoint on it, her silent signal of approval.

"But," Chief gruffly muttered, "If there's anything wrong, I'm taking you back."

Cortana felt a flicker of something deep in her code, something both reassuring and exciting, but not wanting to follow that thought to fruition right now, Cortana left it be and went back trying to trace the faint signal they had received.

After a preliminary sweep of the structure, it was deemed clear of any covenant life. Cortana had identified it as a sealed-off access point to maintenance tunnels. It had the door which they came in, about 50 square feet of space, the closed door to the tunnels on the opposite side, and a long narrow window at waist high, which the Chief was setting up to use as his lookout.  He knelt and began to rig up a prop for the Covenant carbine he had liberated from a dead elite.

Cortana watched his motions languidly, admiring the professionalism of his work and trying to soak up the last bit of comfort from their connection before she would be removed...before she would be alone with her thoughts. It was at that moment, when Cortana remembered why she wanted them to stop in the first place that she realized John was delaying. He was triple checking everything, his hands, touching every weapon at least once and peering down the sights over the narrow window ledge, but there was no need for such concern. He had effectively exterminated all hostile forces for kilometers around. Cortana squeezed her eyes tight to brace herself then appeared in his visor and cleared her throat  to get his attention.

"Ah-em."

Chief did not say anything as he finished setting up the carbine, then he sighed deeply, tucking his chin and removing her data chip. He paused a second then set it on the ground against the wall and beneath the window within arm's reach.

The comforting feeling of his stability and groundedness faded from Cortana's mind, and she winced as the onslaught of other voices increased ten-fold.

"Better?" Chief asked, his faceplate viewing her small avatar critically.

"Yes, thank you." She lied. " It won't take long."

Chief nodded and turned back to stare into the rocky landscape beyond as if he sought to peer through the mountains and see what enemies lay beneath.

Cortana, meanwhile, began to conduct diagnostic tests of her quarantined pathways. She entered her neural net like a spider holding many threads of her web in one hand, one by one she tested its strand and decided to either cut it, save it, or tie it to another thread to save energy. This took all of five minutes, but when she was done, she said nothing, relishing in the rest the Master Chief was getting.

But, what kind of rest was it, he was kneeling, hand on his rifle, peering down the scope of a carbine looking for enemies, hardly relaxing.

Cortana was surprised when he spoke first.

"You should be running diagnostics."

"Who says I'm not?" Cortana said, appearing on the top of her chip hands-on-hips defensively.

"You were worried about me."

"A girl likes to multitask. Besides, I just thought that you might need to get some sleep. The four years in cryo does not count."

Cortana hoped Chief smiled at that, but he made no sign of it.

"Well, I will leave you with your thoughts then," Cortana said, disappearing back in a blink.

They sat in silence like that for ten minutes more. Cortana hoped to hold out as long as possible, to give John time to heal away from her. But each moment grew more excruciating. Maybe, she reasoned, if he went to sleep, the knowledge of what good it was doing him would be enough to hold on longer.

"Chief, this diagnostic is taking me considerably longer than I had anticipated, I think you ought to get some sleep. I jarred you awake much harder than usual on the Forward Unto Dawn, and your body needs to restabilize."

The Chief did not disagree, but he just turned and looked at her.

"Your sensing capabilities are severely limited outside of the suit, or computer network. You wouldn't be able to identify threats." He warned.

"If you take off your helmet, and insert me inside, I could use its capabilities to scan for life signatures or improved audio system sensitivity. You could sleep over there; I can be placed within arm's reach." Cortana cajoled.

John nodded and began to reach for his assault rifle, to drag it to his rest area when he suddenly stopped and stared at Cortana.

"You aren't running diagnostics, not really." He stated it simply, but it was a question as well. "You are worried that I'm in pain, aren't you?"

"Well, I am concerned about a lot of things, frankly, but yes, I am worried, because the suit's systems are telling me you are in a world of pain when I am in there. Cortana pointed a blue arm accusingly. "Frankly, you should have told me at the first sign of pain. You are already protecting me; you shouldn't have to shoulder that as well, just because I'm breaking down."

"I'm... not," Chief stopped, and ducked his chin again likely in bewilderment. She wished she knew what he was thinking out here. John looked up and out the window a second, clearly trying to craft his thoughts. Words were hardly a Spartan's forte. "Cortana... I was not in pain because you were there. I was in pain because I could feel your mind attempting to pull away."

Cortana just looked up at him in confusion.

Without a word, the Master Chief scooped up her data chip and inserted it with a pop.

"John, what are you doing?" She demanded.

"Showing you."He said.

He backed up against the sealed door, slid down until he was sitting, assault rifle propped upon his knee, and leaned his head back against the wall.

Cortana against her best intentions, felt her mind relaxing, as it settled into the worn grooves of his mind. He was like earth, weighing her down, grounding her. Sometimes in the throes of a Rampancy attack, it almost felt like she might float away into nothingness. The Chief changed all that or almost all of that. She then reached out and looked at the suit's diagnostics and saw not only was the Chief not in pain, but his vitals had also been off the charts erratic a few moments ago and was just now stabilizing. Cortana felt amazement, when she realized how high his blood pressure had been, his heart rate, and also the high levels of stress hormones he was currently operating under now.

"Whenever you have one of your attacks, I feel it too. Only it's not you causing the pain, it's like you go inside yourself for a moment. It's not having you that...well, I would rather have that, than not."John trailed off there, unwilling to say more and closed his eyes, head relaxed back against the door.

"Remind me to tell you what I realized after we took down the Unyielding Hierophant, sometime." Chief said, looking at the small image of Cortana that had appeared on his visor.

She smiled, flashing with brilliant electricity.

"Later, after you sleep...and John? Thank you."

The Master Chief said nothing, but swiped his thumb over the back of his helmet in a gentle upward motion, in a Spartan Smile meant just for them.

Cortana cycled to scanning the perimeter, but a thought would not stop running through her network as she did.

We make each other comfortable. We make each other comfortable.