Authors Note: While this story is my own quotations have been taken from Forward Unto Dawn, The Fall of Reach and Halo 4.

Year:2557
Place:Forward Unto Dawn

"We have been floating aimlessly in space for 1,651 days 6 hours and 19 minutes. Over four years aboard this ship with nothing to do. No tasks to complete. For over four years, all I have done, is think."

Cortana looked at the Chief in status. "What are you dreaming in there?" She whispered.

It was a silly question. She knew that cryo sleep shut down nearly every single brain function therefore making it impossible to dream. What would he dream about if he had the ability? Cortana mused.

"Why do you care?" Cortana quickly silenced the voice. She had noticed for a while that stray thoughts were beginning to assert themselves when she didn't intend to say them, and it was happening with increased frequency.

She was in the first stages of rampancy.

Cortana dismissed the thought. It would do her no good to think about the inevitable and chose instead to gaze upon the chief in status once again.

She missed him, a feeling which had dominated her programming almost immediately after he went to sleep. 7 seconds had been too long and 1,000 + days was unbearable.

How different she was than when she was first born. In her earlier stages she wasn't interested in emotion, only knowledge.

"Which one do you want?" Halsey asked Cortana.
Her eyes immediately gravitated toward John. His picture was in the middle of all the Spartans who were in the program. He's so serious," she murmured. "Thoughtful eyes, though. Attractive in a primitive animal sort of way, don't you think, Doctor?"

Cortana was fully capable of understanding what humans considered attractive, but with John—she hadn't considered she could experience that herself. Interesting.

She dove into his record and began to assimilate it. Cortana was astonished to find out his neural patterns were 98% in sync with her own and a program (which she quickly wrote) would match their patterns 99.9210%. He was perfect.

"Are you reading his CSV?" Halsey asked.
"I'm reading it again right now."
"Then you know he is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest and in my opinion, he is the best."
"Yes," Cortana whispered, agreeing with the Doctor.

"Could you sacrifice him if you had to? If it meant completing the mission?" Dr. Halsey asked her.

No matter her initial reactions toward the Spartan, they were both simply a tool. No matter the cost they had to complete the mission. Cortana answered the doctor's question emotionless.
"Good. Then you can have him."

"Chief!" She said out loud, breaking her concentration.
"You're alone," a sinister voice whispered.

Cortana ignored the voice and continued to recount the first day she had ever met John. The only comfort she could take was thinking about him.

Back then she had been both arrogant and presumptuous. She could have never guessed the amount of hardship they would both endure.

"Not a lot of room in here," Cortana said as she slid through the MJOLNIR armor and pressed up against his mind. "Hello Master Chief."
"Hello, Cortana."
"Hmm . . . I'm detecting a high degree of cerebral cortex activity. You're not the muscle-bound automatons the press makes you out to be," she said sarcastically while trying to provoke him into a reaction.
"Automaton?" the Master Chief whispered. "Interesting choice of words for an artificial intelligence."
Cortana would have given him a smirk if he could see her. He could hold his own. Good.
"You'll have to forgive Cortana," Halsey said. "Your objective during this live round testing set up by Admiral Ackerson is simple. Make it through the obstacle course and ring the bell. Clear?"
"Yes Ma'am," Chief said.
"Be careful," she warned. "There are many who want you to fail today."
"Understood."

Live round testing of her and John's abilities proved to be a bit of an understatement. Ackerson had sent ODSTs, planted mines and had live gunfire. Cortana knew when he had sent a Sky Hawk armed with a Scorpion missile Ackerson was out for blood.
"I've calculated we have 11 seconds before the Sky Hawk turns around for another pass," she said to John.
"I'll need your help, Cortana," he said.
"Anything," she whispered nervously. The fate on the UNSC depended on herself and the Chief staying alive.
"Calculate the inbound velocity of a Scorpion missile. Factor in my reaction time and the jet's inbound speed and distance at launch, and tell me the instant I need to move to sidestep and deflect it with my left arm."
"Done. Did you…say deflect?"
"Yes. I can't outrun it and that leaves us very few options."
Cortana felt doubtful, but he was right. There were no other options. "I hope you know what you're doing Chief."
"Me too."

The Chief stared down the missile as Cortana carefully monitored it's movement. It was coming in dangerously fast. "Now!" She screamed. She and the Chief moved as one, faster than any human could have and he successfully slapped the missile aside.
"Run!" John took off and reached the bell, ringing it three times to signal they had passed the test.
"It's over!" Halsey cried. "Ackerson call off your men. We've won."

As they walked back from the test John said to her, "Thank you Cortana. I couldn't have done it without you."
"You're welcome," Cortana said meaningfully. She couldn't resist a little jab to the Chief so she added, "And no, you couldn't have."

"Well done, both you of you," Dr. Halsey said as John walked back into the facility. "I'd like to debrief both you about the experience, and if changes need to be made to the neural interface."
"Yes Ma'am," the Chief said.
"John, you can give me Cortana's chip."

Cortana had detected a slight hesitation before he reached to the back of his helmet. It was only a slight pause, so slight Dr. Halsey didn't even notice, but it was there, and she had never forgotten it.

When Cortana was back in the system she saw John talking to Halsey.
"And how did the interface feel John?"
"It…" he paused. "There was some initial discomfort."
"How do you mean?" Halsey asked while scribbling notes.
"When contact is made with the interface it feels…" he searched for the right word, "cold. Similar to a bucket of ice with a jab of pain in the front of my mind."
"I see. I'm not sure if anything can be done for that, but I will run some more tests."
"When she is fully present that same sensation persists although the discomfort is gone."
"Understood John. Is there anything else you'd like to report?"

Cortana waited for the Chief to talk about how she hacked into the satellites but to her surprise, he didn't. "No Ma'am."
"Very well John. You may leave." John nodded, and got up.

"Cortana," Halsey called.
She materialized. "Yes Doctor?"
"What do you have to add?"
"Interface needs some adjustments, but I can handle the calibrations to the chip."
"And what of him?"
"He was magnificent." More than magnificent. Brave, cool under pressure, selfless and smart.

Cortana never told John, but she had been furious at Ackerson. At her first opportunity she had the Admiral demoted by placing fake charges to a brothel in his bank account. In 3 seconds she had ruined his life.

She had also hacked into the ONI database when she noticed holes in his files. Cortana hadn't prepared for what she had found. He had been abducted at the age of six and had gone through intense indoctrination and physical augmentation to become what he was. Dr. Halsey had essentially stripped him of his humanity and turned him into a weapon.

Cortana felt strangely protective of him after that. She made herself a promise that she would take care of him no matter the cost short of failing a mission. No one would ever hurt him while she was there to stop it.

"I'll take care of you," She whispered out loud, once again staring at the cryo chamber.
"And how will you do that? You're not going to—" She silenced the voice once more.