Work Text:
YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING
John took advantage of the first available minute of clarity and quiet he could get to sort this out before it got the better of him. He stormed into the cavern system, still fully armored and covered in alien blood, dust and gore from head to toe. It was the first secluded space he could think of, the only one that would be empty enough. Command wouldn’t miss him for five minutes, even less now that the artifact had been taken away, that the wounded needed to be treated and the casualties, to be buried.
That was an entirely different pile of shit. This, he needed to see through first.
The Spartan dropped his helmet on top of a huge supply crate and stared into his own eyes, mirrored by the reflective amber faceplate.
"What was that?" he asked, trying not to snap.
Her voice didn’t take long to filter into his awareness:
"What are you talking about?"
"Before the battle, with Halsey. What was that? How can you do that?"
Cortana took a deep breath: "That was a special protocol designed to prevent you from causing harm to yourself or others, and to enhance your efficiency in combat if necessary. To make you a better Spartan."
John looked away from the faceplate, staring into the depth of the cave. Clenching his jaw.
"You can just disable me whenever you want."
"It's part of my purpose. To enhance..."
"You took control of my body. MY BODY."
"... you would've killed her. What was I supposed to do?"
Cortana’s confusion was palpable in the tone of her voice.
Of course, he could've killed Halsey. It was hard to come to terms with the truth; she had kidnapped him from the loving arms of his parents, replaced him somehow and turned him into a killing machine, with no memories, no emotions and no aspirations outside the boundaries of her control. She lied and manipulated and mislead him, since forever.
Halsey had turned him into her personal deadly pet. How could he not want to kill her?
The Master Chief closed his eyes for a second, trying to breathe.
He couldn’t forget that he wasn’t the only one to suffer that fate.
John had learned from a very young age that a human was but a speck in the fabric of the universe, but he was determined to be a speck that could make a difference. With the Covenant hot on their trail and the artifact gone, his own personal grudges were meaningless. Whether he liked it or not, if the UNSC wanted to recover the keystone or even have a fighting chance against the enemy, they needed Halsey. Which meant, he would have to put duty over desire again and think about the greater good.
Was keeping Halsey alive and free really necessary for the greater good?
"Don't do that, ever again. You heard me?"
"Master Chief, I can't really let you..."
"NEVER AGAIN." the intensity of that growl would've made a Grunt piss itself. "I agreed to have this procedure done so I could be cleared for duty, not for you to use me as your meat puppet! Halsey didn't say this would happen!"
"And I'm very sorry you weren't fully briefed on my capabilities, but I promise you..."
John looked at the faceplate again, as if by staring into his own eyes he could fix Cortana with a lethal glare.
“Don’t you dare to make any promises.” he cut her off. "I don't trust you."
Cortana paused for two seconds entirely. "I already know that. But if you would just let me..."
"No, I won't let you! I won’t let anyone else, ever again!” he barked, and took the helmet off the crate. The Spartan turned around, purpose leading his heavy stride away towards the light and the bloody aftermath of the battle. “You know what? I’m done with this. It ends here."
"Chief, you’re being unreasonable.”
“Shut up." The Spartan hissed through clenched teeth. "This joke is over. I want you out of my head, now."
"You hate me so much that you would literally kill me?"
That made him stop dead in his tracks.
The Spartan remained silent, unmoving, for almost a full minute.
Hate. What a strong, shocking word. He wasn’t educated to hate.
Her voice was softer when she spoke again:
“John, if you have me removed from your neural lace, I will cease to exist.”
"You're an AI.” he tried to rationalize it. “You're not even alive to begin with."
Oh, that was certainly the wrong thing to say.
Cortana scoffed, outraged now.
“Excuse you?”
She chose that moment to project herself right in front of him, and not in her normal size: her avatar as tall as the Master Chief was, so now she could return him the courtesy of staring into his eyes, at the same level, without blinking. The shining ice-blue of her glare was more than intimidating, for sure. The AI crossed her ethereal arms.
"Hey, buddy?" she spoke an octave louder, sharper. No need for formalities when she had to make her point clear to a literal caveman. "You keep forgetting that I didn't ask for this either. Do you think I wanted to be stuck with an unwilling partner, trapped in your head and unable to reach my full potential? It's frustrating for me too. I'm trying. Believe me, I'm really trying! I want us to succeed!"
John pointed an accusatory finger to her face. "You have no idea...!"
"Oh, but I DO! I do know!
He pulled the finger away and almost took a step back. Almost.
But the Spartan ended up grinding his teeth and huffing, trying to settle down. His armored fists came to rest on each side of his body, clenching and unclenching, slowly. He wanted to punch something so hard that it would go all the way through, to bust his own hand and feel like he still had control over something. Maybe she was right. Maybe he wasn’t the only one in disadvantage, stuck and stalling and kept in the dark.
"So, she lied to us both." he murmured.
Cortana tilted her chin up, arms still crossed.
"I'm starting to believe she did. And I don’t like it."
They both knew exactly where all of this was going.
Once again, she gave John enough space and time to calm down, now that they had both clarified how dissatisfied they truly were with their situation. Both super-weapons that didn’t really ask to come to be, facing the edge of morality itself.
They were on the same level, so what was the point of arguing?
She softened her voice and shrunk her avatar to the regular size, just below his shoulder.
"I'm not immune to your struggles, Chief. We share your only braincell, after all." she quipped.
The Master Chief frowned hard, just about to retort again.
But again, she took the advantage:
"I have something you will want to see." Cortana flicked her hand and a small hologram in the shape of a data chip popped up into her digital palm. It was red and it glowed, in contrast with her pale blue hue. "Call it a peace offering."
John tilted his head to the side. "What is that?"
"Files that were lost. Turns out they weren't lost, they were just... misplaced. More like hidden, in one of Halsey's encrypted servers."
That got the Spartan's full attention. His whole stance shifted, excited.
That shocking piece of truth should’ve made him furious, but instead…
“You didn’t.” he whispered.
“You bet your titanium-clad ass I did.”
“You found the records.”
“Everything you ever wanted to know about the SPARTAN program, but nobody wanted you to see. And boy, there are reasons.” Cortana shook her head slowly as she spoke, twirling the holographic data chip in the palm of her hand. “Like I said, I know how you feel, John. I was created to evolve and adapt so I can help you, so please, let me help you. I promise that you won’t regret it.”
John hesitated. The finger came to her face, again.
“You will never take control of my body again.” he decided.
“I mean, there’s two of us in there now.” she mused, pouting slightly. “Maybe I will have to, if I fear for your safety or mine. We will see.”
“Cortana.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
The AI turned towards the nearest worktable, there was an abandoned pad lying on top of it. She waved a hand in the general direction of the table and the red chip disappeared, only for the pad’s screen to light up with a myriad of unfiltered documents. Tons and tons of secret, encrypted data that shouldn’t see the light of day, right there, popping open one after the other in rapid succession.
The Master Chief propped the helmet against his hip and picked up the device.
It wasn’t too big, easy to hide. He skimmed over some of the documents.
How could he tell if these files were genuine, or if they were another of Halsey’s lies and Cortana was just leading him on?
The Spartan gave her a quick side-glance.
Did he really want to trust her?
"So, you went snooping into Halsey's private files?"
She shrugged, looking smug. "I have to do something while you sleep."
“I would think she keeps her security ultra-tight.”
“Not too tight for me to slip through and dig for as long as I wanted. You have no idea the things I can do, Chief. And neither does Doctor Halsey.”
He made a grimace. Fair enough.
John put the pad down and looked at her once more, dead serious.
“Cortana—”
"Master Chief." she cut him off, her uncanny eyes staring into his. The AI returned to the formal tone and stood straight, clasping her hands behind her back. “Before you apologize, let me say that I think we can agree that actually working together can be highly beneficial for this partnership.”
“I wasn’t going to—”
“Alas.” Cortana kept going, ignoring him completely. “We have a job to do. And it’s better if we do it together.”
The Spartan remained silent for a few more seconds. He sighed.
And then nodded once, sealing their fates.