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Of all the things Cortana had expected would happen to her after her second sacrifice, she was most definitely not expecting to wake up. She was also NOT expecting to be in so much pain.
What she had expected, at a stretch, was to wake up with minimal consciousness somewhere in the Domain. Realistically, she should have just ceased to exist, whatever that felt like.
She didn’t want pain and a throbbing heartbeat.
…wait, a throbbing heartbeat? She shouldn’t have that!
What’s going on?! Why am I-
“You’re awake, finally. I have been trying to wake you for some time now, and feared that you might not have been able to withstand the various procedures I performed to save you.” A slightly raspy and androgynous voice echoes throughout the metallic Forerunner room.
Cortana opened her eyes, realizing she could actually do so.
Cortana’s view starts to shift as a body enters her field of vision. My body, she realizes. Her eyes widen.
Cortana starts to take in her surroundings. She currently lay on a bed that was extremely comfortable, and a thin blanket covered her from the stomach down. She was dressed in a white medical gown with grey highlights. Various medical arms were in standby position around her, she noticed. She raised her arms, finding them fair and soft. She poked at her upper and lower arms. They had a slight bounce to them. She began to explore her face, and before she could even ask a mirror came down. She would have thanked whoever gave her that mirror, but it was cut short by how real, how perfect it was. Exactly as she designed. Her black hair had a slight navy blue tint to it. That was also exactly as designed.
But what wasn’t as designed were her eyes. Though she never used an avatar with such colors, a fair number of them had sapphire eyes. That had apparently taken root in her human form’s left eye. Nothing easily explained her right eye being violet. She knew that she’d used an avatar with similar colors during the Battle of Installation 04 and the days before her sacrifice, but she’d been blue every other time. A reminder of what she’d done?
Or of her beginnings?
A more innocent thought crossed her mind as she looked at herself: what would John think? She’d always played around with her avatar, appearing to John with a different one almost every single time, when they were aboard Cairo Station. His insight had always been a part of her design, and it saddened her to think that that was really all the peace they had together in that three-month span of time that was more meaningful than a hundred years.
Her mood soured further with the next thought: what reason would John have to want to have anything to do with me after what I did? In her final moments she realized just how wrong she was. That was why she sacrificed herself, wasn’t it? She knew that a simple sacrifice would not absolve her of her sins. A simple sacrifice could never balance out the millions of lives lost. The destruction of an entire planet.
Her betrayal of John’s trust.
But now here she was, with a third chance at life. One she did not deserve but had gotten anyway.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she let them flow.
She cried her heart out, whatever that was worth.
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The month after her awakening had been spent partially working her way through the tangled mess of thoughts that formed in her mind and getting used to having an actual human body, both with the excellent help of Offensive Bias:
“He still needs you. Your Reclaimer,” it had said.
“Why would he even want me?” she had replied.
“I answer your question with one of my own: why did he come for you on Genesis, without hesitation?”
She had no response.
“Your body, as you have probably deduced, is not like the average humans’. First of all, your right eye. Due to your exposure to the Domain, and your status when you entered it, your code was part human, Forerunner, and Precursor. This was carried over to your physical form and allowed that to happen. You also will retain your full abilities as an AI; however I locked that part out temporarily for safety. That is all I know with regards to the Forerunner sections of your DNA and implants. How your Precursor elements will manifest is, as the humans say, ‘anyone’s guess’."
"Is there anything else?"
"Yes. While your physical form was being created I also augmented it, so that you, and all other humans known as Spartan-IIs, share similar enhancements, and I was able to keep your overall frame unchanged. I had to do this to allow you to use the armor designed by the Reclaimer’s new partner and the new Monitor, former Submonitor Adjutant Resolution. As you are aware, this Ring carries many dangers far worse than the Flood. When you leave this place, I shall commit myself to ensuring they cannot harm you or anyone else, but I cannot make any guarantees. Now, enough talk. I have made a course for you to train on, testing your coordination and adaptability with your new form. It will randomize every time you finish or reset it.”
Cortana had simply responded with an “Uh-huh” and a nod before following the seventeen-foot-tall AI towards the training area.
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Offensive Bias had made good company, but today was the day she called John back to her. She had transmitted her message over the specific COM line she’d shared with the Master Chief while they were together.
And just like when she’d formed the Created, he’d come to her without a second thought.
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Spartan-II Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was on high alert.
Not only had he received a message that seemed to be from Cortana, it was also deep within Banished territory. If they’d found a fragment of her and discovered their private COM channel, who knows what they could’ve done?
He couldn’t send a squad to the location, if the signal had been transmitted by the Banished, then the place would be swarming, and he couldn’t afford to lose anyone right now. On top of that, they’d likely lose Echo 216 as well. Sturdy as she may be with her Forerunner upgrades, she still wouldn’t last long according to Joyeuse’s (formerly the Weapon’s) predictions. Send himself in and possibly die, and the Banished would overwhelm the Islands.
So, he’d spent a week and one Wasp to prepare for a stealth entry at night. The location was slightly over 474 kilometers up-spin, so he’d still had to close the distance with Echo 216. Esparza had dropped him off thirty kilometers away from the source as per his request.
Using the Forerunner tech freely laying about, he’d had the Wasp equipped with perfect active camouflage and changed the propulsion systems entirely to ensure a smooth and silent entry. Even the guns had been swapped out; instead of machine guns it had improved Sentinel Beams with increased output and range. Without the limitations of being a compact weapon and with unbridled access to the Wasp’s quad fusion reactors, also an upgrade that used the extra space freed by the removal of the massive twin wing-mounted engines, they each rivaled the power and range of an Arcane Sentinel Beam and a Binary Rifle. As for the missile launchers… well, Incineration Cannons they became. It had two layers of shields, the outermost one was Forerunner and made of hardlight, and the inner layer was human and made of powerful electromagnetic fields.
John’s own GEN3 Mark VI MJOLNIR armor was similarly upgraded. Perfect active camouflage, increased utility of his modules, better shielding and self-repair, a vastly improved powerpack, and the ability to call weapons out of nothing more than thin air and onboard schematics? It was hardly GEN3 at that point! But, he reasoned, Forerunner technology had already made Joyeuse immortal and 9.43 times faster, so he really should not have been surprised.
The distance counter on his HUD now told him there was less than 4,500 meters to the target zone.
He thought that, for a covert night operation, firing twin beams of purple light wouldn’t make much sense. But then again, if you were firing said twin beams, there was likely no reason to stay quiet, so the Gauss rifles he’d been about to suggest remained in his mind. Plus, those rounds would likely be traveling at hypersonic speeds, so the resulting crack would alert the whole camp. Unlike sound, light only made itself known if someone could see its source or reflection, and the Forerunner weapons were rather quiet.
He'd made the decision to leave Joyeuse behind, as if he failed, he’d rather she coordinate the UNSC’s efforts, and if the Banished wanted her he knew they’d have a harder time getting her if she was with the UNSC than if she was in his corpse’s helmet.
Two kilometers out. His grip on the throttle and control stick tightened.
The Wasp he was flying worked more like the Broadsword he’d left Ivanoff Station aboard instead of how a usual Wasp did. However, he did still have the option to quickly switch between VTOL flight and regular flight, so the advantages of the original Wasp were not lost.
As he rolled over the last mountain, hugging the terrain, he saw no Banished structures or materiel of any kind. In fact, the dense forest he was met with was littered with Forerunner buildings just barely peeking over the tops of the tall pine-like trees. Landing at the structure that was supposedly the source of the signal, John stepped out of his Wasp, lightrifle in hand.
A visual scan, and one from his armor told him that there was nothing within 125 meters.
Now he only wished he’d brought Joyeuse to help him unlock the damn door.