Alriiight! I haven't worked on this one in a long time, in fact it took another two months or so before I even started this chapter after posting the last one... so lets get down to it!

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I cracked my neck a few times, followed by my shoulders... then jaw... you know, loosening up the joints as I sat in my fatigues on a bench in the locker rooms just after having gotten out of the cryochamber... supposedly we were due to make Reach within the day, galactically speaking.

I heard the doors to the room slid open and glanced up, seeing Sgt. Montgomery passing through. "Sir." He started "We found something while sanitising the infected wing of the ship." He pulled out a small plastic bag with a heart shaped vial in it. "We had the girl called Montmorency have a look at this and she confirmed it to be a volatile love potion."

"Love potion?" I asked "Who would..." I paused "Well that narrows down the suspect list..."

"You know who it was that unleashed the love sickness sir?"

"Well, it was probably one of the girls... you know the ones who uh..."

"Have a hankering for you?"

"Not what I was going to say but sure..." I sighed as I finished tying up my boots. I then stood up and followed Jude down the halls towards the boarding aft section. As we made our way there we could already see the excitement running through the marines onboard, many of them were hurrying around making last minute preparations for landing.

"We're this close to Reach huh?" I asked

"Yeah, we'll be planetside within the hour I think."

"Great..." I muttered "Anyways, as I was saying, it was either Siesta or Louise who unleashed the potion."

"Not that other one? The elf?"

"Tiffania?" I asked, then waved him off "No not her, I wouldn't hold it up to her... she's not that type... and Henrietta was in another wing of the ship when all that went down so I'd rule her out."

"She could have still just brought it aboard and lost it..."

"Yeah but one of the main reasons I'm ruling Tiffania and Henrietta out is because they're not desperate... they're not clawing at the bits trying to keep a piece of that..." I stopped talking and facepalmed, furrowing my brow "I can't believe we're even talking about this..."

"Hey you brought it up, sir."

"Yeah, yeah... but anyways..." I trailed off "I heard from Carter that I'm expected back at the Bio-lab where I was cloned... I still find it hard to believe..."

"Pardon, sir?"

"That I'm a clone... I feel like Noble Six... but... I don't... it's hard to explain." I paused and looked down the halls when I heard the ship's comms go off.

"All hands, prepare for docking, coming in at Phoenix-3, Docking bay A-2..." then in a less formal tone the captain finished by saying "Pack it up marines, your leave starts within the hour."

I turned back to Jude "Hey mind doing me a favor?"

"What is it sir?"

"Jude... we're technically off duty now... no need to refer to me by rank."

"Uh... that's..."

"Anyways... I need you to keep Louise and Co. off my back until I'm done at the labs."

The face Jude made after I requested this of him was... strained, pained and certainly unamused.

"Sorry, but only I've got clearance... and I doubt she'd take my no for an answer..."

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I had arrived at the lab where I was taken down several levels to a more... R&D style area, with books and writings of all kinds stashed in shelves while across the room, prototypes were strewn atop tables and workbenches.

"Anyways, Scorch." Said the technician who was guiding me through the labs, referring to me as my given clone name. "I was instructed to allow you access to our research data into the cloning procedure and effects... since the rest of your team had access to it before they left it was only fair." He stepped over to a lift where he was carried up several shelf levels and retrieved a thick binder which he took back down with him and handed to me. "We'll also need your armor for now, don't worry we don't need your NT-SD... we're just going to make some modifications to your armor... depending on how those go we're going to call you back in... oh wait no... sorry almost forgot, we need a blood sample before you go."

I raised an eyebrow as he gave me the binder "Working on something big?" I asked

"As of right now that is classified, don't worry its nothing evil and sinister like ONI usually does."

"That's reassuring..." I grumbled in the most sarcastic voice I could manage.

"Don't worry, just read up on this stuff and get some rest, come find us before you leave." He said before walking away.

I sighed and found a place to sit down and scan through the notes.

"Blah... blah... blah..." I muttered as I scrolled through the nonsense and boring facts and figures. "Wait... this is interesting..."

Project Reincarnation – 1104963

Herein accounts a list of both positive and negative effects we've taken note of due to the process of cloning. We would like to also remind you that results differ from subject to subject, however these are the most common effects.

X - Clone subjects grow at an accelerated rate while in their chambers

X- Physical capabilities and power increased by roughly 15% more than the average human, this effect seems to stack with Spartan subjects.

X- While subjects are physically superior to normal humans, the cloning process either damages the brain due to the speed of growth, OR, stunts the overall mental age of the clone. This does not mean they are less intelligent, it seems that the subjects mature slower.

X- Clone DNA pools can be altered with a bit of the current clone's DNA to modify any abilities the clone may have obtained. Thus allowing future Reincarnation clones to retain those abilities. (This omits addictions to substances and artificial enhancements.)

X- Clone subjects learn extremely fast.

X- Clone subjects minds can be altered during incubation to provide different memories... however these are temporary and will fade once the Clone reaches a certain age, replacing them with their original memories. Might be useful for Covert operatives.

X- Fertility in Female clones and potency in male Clones reduced by 95%. Meaning biological reproduction through coitis is highly unlikely for a Clone. This effect is doubled when both subjects are clones with a rate of around 0.0105263157894452...% chance of reproduction. Subjects, mostly male, will be pleased to know that the reduced fertility and potency will not affect your "Size"...

'Well this is all useful information...' I thought... my face then lost a bit of color 'well that explain why Siesta didn't get uh... yeah...' I shook my head 'still find it hard to believe that happened...'

I put the book down just as I got a message on my Tac-Pad. "Since when did this thing function as a social device?" I muttered as I read the message, clearly not duty related. "Not that I'm complaining..."

Club Errera reopened a few days ago, UNSC personal stationed back on Halkenginia are headed there tonight, you going to come?

I grinned, yeah I could be persuaded to skip out on Louise for a night at Errera, last time I was at that place I blew it up. What!? There were Hunters!

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Most of the crew from Halkenginia was there, the Marines, crew from the Sunstrider, even old Noble team was there along with a few of the new Spartan IVs who were to be heading back with us on the return trip to reinforce the UNSC-Reclaimer on the Halo Installation 07.

The night went by quickly as the remixed Never Surrender played in the background. Most of us were out of uniform of course, myself included with a simple attire of khaki cargo pants and a grey hoodie with white letters spelling out UNSC. Even so I wasn't the most out of place one there, Jun oddly enough was the only one still wearing fatigues... hell even Carter and Jorge were in casual wear... fuckin' CARTER! If he was out there bustin' a move then surely Jun over there could at least crack a smile at how bad he was.

If anything he looked more pissed off and annoyed than anything else.

Kat was over with a few other marines on the other side of the club at one of the two bars, two of whom were passed out while the ODST with them was downing them with Kat like it was nothing.

I chuckled at the actions of my squad and the UNSC personal here, it was nice to unwind I'll admit but I couldn't shake the look Jun was giving me. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

I walked over to Jun who was at the opposite bar from where Kat was, drink in hand before sitting down next to him on the stool beside his. He sat leaning back a bit, one arm up on the bar counter before his eyes just shifted to me.

"What is it Jun? You've been giving me that look since we got here." I asked

Jun pushed himself upright before giving me a stern look "You forget yourself... Scorch."

I wasn't so much shaken by his words, more like him referring to me as Scorch... he always referred to me as Six... much like the others.

"Uh... I don't understand." I replied, putting my drink down on the counter, swiveling my stool towards him.

"Tchk..." Jun huffed in annoyance "What happened to you? Where is that Hyper-Lethal-Vector we had? I remember you as a one man army... now? You're kicking back, chasing after women and can't even take on one tiny girl..."

My eyes shifted away from him, I turned towards the counter, putting both elbows on the top. "War's over Jun. Third gens aren't needed so much anymore with the fourth gen coming in now." I took a shot of my drink "Besides... I already died once, don't you think Six deserves some time off?"

Then he had to go and say something real unsettling... he got up, turned his back to me and before leaving turned his head and told me, "Six is dead, time for you to come to terms with that."

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Jun's words had stuck with me more than I let on as I made my way back to my apartment nearby. I made my way up several stories before opening the door and to my surprise found Louise waiting for me there...

"Idiot! Where the hell have you been!?" she barked

"Louise god damn it, I'm not your familiar anymore, you don't have to hound me 24/7!"

"Well I've nowhere else to stay, Montmorency and the others are staying at a hotel somewhere in town while Siesta is in the ship's prison.

"W-what? What did she do!?"

"Apparently they managed to link the love potion to her and locked her up for a week as punishment, that Jude guy said she was getting off easy."

"Wonderful... I'm sure he kept you entertained..." I groaned

I noticed Louise glaring at me from the corner of my eye... I just sighed and went into my room, flopping down on the bed...

I closed my eyes for just a moment, opening my left eye seeing Louise standing at the door.

"Th... that's a really big bed..." she said

"King sized, dunno why they gave me this... I'm the only one who should be here anyways..." I muttered before adding "You ain't sleeping with me by the way."

"Then where the hell do I sleep!?"

"Kick out the sofa, it's got a fold out in it."

"Bu-"

"Louise, I'm not in the mood for this ok!" I barked, startling her. "I've just... I've got some thinking to do ok? Just... just leave me along for a while ok?"

I knew she'd want to press the subject... I was half expecting her to prod further which I really didn't have the patience for but surprisingly enough... "OK" she replied "Well... good night then..." and she left the doorway and I could hear her trying to pull the bed out.

I sighed once more, still thinking about what Jun had told me only a couple hours ago as I nodded off.

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I couldn't tell where I was, the flora and terrain weren't familiar to me but it was green, a jungle. Vines hung down from the towering treetops seemingly miles above, all I had was an MA5D assault rifle and my armor. I checked over myself once more, finding a strange rod at my side, it was about the size of a narrow yet tall water bottle and made of a strange silvery and black alloy, it wasn't steel I could tell that much. There was a button at the side of it, I pressed it and out sprung a blue beam of light, I didn't have to get close to tell that this was supper heated energy, similar to that of an energy sword... I put the weapon away, shrugging it off, probably just some variant of energy sword.

I pushed my way through the foliage, not sure where I was going but knowing I was here for a reason... again, I didn't know why I was here, but clearly I was here with a purpose, it appeared as though I hadn't crashed, nor gotten lost.

"Scorch" came a static voice "Scorch come in."

I flicked on my helmet's comms, "Hello? This is S-362 responding" I waited... no answer. "Weird..." I muttered. "Maybe I'm too deep in the foliage to get a proper respond signal?" honestly that logic didn't make sense, but I was just trying to tell myself anything to keep my focused on why I was here in the first place.

As I made my way through the jungle I came across an embankment looking over an old, metal structure, it was forerunner without a doubt. The trees were hiding it from orbital scans perfectly, no wonder I'd been sent down here, command must have been searching for this place.

I slid down the hill, searching for an entrance. I turned a corner around the edge of the building and halted, hoisting my rifle to meet the barrel of another gun, pointed at me... the man opposite of me was fully armored in what looked like advanced lightweight riot armor with an armored helmet and gasmask attachment with glowing red holographic eye slits, overtop all this he wore a black leather-like material trenchcoat. He had a small but heavily modified submachine gun pointed at me, looked almost like a twentieth century P90 but without the upper scope pieces and a shortened stock... whatsmore it also appeared to be chambered with a higher caliber of bullet... was... was that 12.7mm? How the hell such a small gun could chamber that kind of ammo astounded me, depending on the rate of fire that thing would chew through my armor in seconds.

However the opposing soldier lowered his gun to my suprise and addressed me. "Oh Scorch... sorry I didn't know you were in the area."

I raised an eyebrow from under my helmet... did I know this guy?

"Ah, I see your comms are down, that explains a lot... lemme relay this to command." The soldier held up his wrist and punched something into his arm mounted Tac-pad... but on second glance that thing was to bulky to be a Tac-pad... far too bulky!

"Command, this is Operative F040, I've regrouped with Operative S362, we're about to enter the GLA hideout, be ready to catch the escapees." He said.

"Roger that Fixer, Operative Sev S007 is en route, he'll clean up after you. Eliminate all Galactic Liberation Army forces and if possible eliminate or capture the Ashen Verdict."

"Yes sir, forty out."

"Care to fill me in I asked"

"Huh?" the Fixer guy replied "C'mon man, we can't be wasting time here, Liberation Army or Legion, whatever they're calling themselves these days we can't let them escape this time. We've been chasing these guys for centuries... you've seen firsthand what they're capable of I know you don't want them coming to power any more than the rest of us..."

"But..." I started

"Look, if he really is here, I understand... taking down Ash will be hard on you, I know he's gotten a few good hits on you before and you two run deep but we can't let him get away with this anymore, if he gets away... You, me, Sev... Operatives Juno, Ghost, Kalipso... Epiee and god damnit even Silver... our existence will once again be called into question."

I didn't recognize any of the names he was throwing around but for some reason the names Silver and Sev caught me...

This Fixer guy must have noticed my change in expression even with my helmet on "I know you don't want any harm to come to Silver... you two are good together right? But she's a big girl man, we got this to do... I'm sure she's busy with her own tasks right now anyways... now's not the time for cold feet." Then he shook his head "Man I'm getting off topic, let's just finish this all, then we'll be done... and we can all go home."

"Right..." I nodded, following the Ranger through the door behind him, encountering several black armored humanoid soldiers. Most wore a black, almost ODST like armor however it was more glossy and instead of the typical ODST chest plate, most had an array of lights and digital hardware over them, covered in a see through bulletproof material... their helmets however reminded me of the EOD MJOLNIR helmet class, but the two bottom prongs stuck out further and had the same glossy, almost plastic looking texture as the rest of their suits. Our weapons cut through them easily enough however as we descended into the depths of this structure.

After waves of grunts, we finally reached the bottom.

"The room is empty..." I said, looking around the simple, grey, stone room with only one spot of light flowing in through the ceiling from what looked like a ventilation shaft or something... pretty wide for one though.

"Yeah... I wonder if ol' Ash chickened out..."

I heard a few steps coming from the back of the room, sounded like more than one person.

"No... No I'm still here... I must of course buy some time for a... VIP to escape..."

"VIP? Ash has gotten away then?" Fixer asked as the man stepped out of the shadows, in full black and red armor... it was MJOLNIR! A black and golden Scout Helmet topped his head and blood red lines ran down the rest of his EVA variant armor.

"Ash..." Fixer growled "Who the hell would be more important than you?"

"Oh you think I'm the top brass, that is so flattering..." he replied, letting a BR55 slide off his back. Another person stepped out from behind this Ash fellow, a woman from the looks of it in similar armor to most of the grunts, only this version had green EVA-like shoulders and green knee guards. The helmet was along the lines of a Grenadier type helmet.

"I see... you brought help..." Fixer said "Codename, Black Thorn am I right?"

"Close enough..." replied this Thorn character.

"Careful man, Ash and Thorn alone are a dangerous opponent, but both at the same time... man this is not good..."

Without warning the two came at us, Thorn took on Fixer while I was left to deal with Ash.

We went our separate ways, being pushed aside and around the room until I was forced into the next room and kicked down a ramp, falling back into this huge hangar sized room, in fact it was a hangar I saw a shuttle and a small one person type starfighter in the room. I drew my energy sword upon getting up as my gun has been knocked out of my hands... Ash hoisted his Battle Rifle and fired burst after burst at me but to my surprise I was able to use the sword to deflect or vaporize most of his shots easily, sure one bullet got through every now and then but it wasn't anything to worry about as my shields recharged by then.

I heard Ash grunt at his inability to hit me, drawing his own energy sword, exactly the same as my old one only this one was red and flickered on occasion like it was an old piece of hardware that had seen extensive use.

I heard the weering of an engine, looking back I saw a triangular shaped shuttle pick up and fly out through a hanger bay door, out across an ocean... apparently we were close to a Cliffside.

"Scorch..." Started Ash "I know we've crossed blades before and we're of even match... yet I still don't understand why you don't see the light of things. The A.U.S.S, since day one was contented to plant themselves firmly in already established worlds, rolling over the people there whether they wanted to join or not..."

I firmly stood my ground for a moment, backing up only to take my fighting stance, gripping my sword with both hands as if I'd been trained in a specific style of swordplay with this weapon, it was very composed, with the blade raised to my shoulder and my step back locked. I could even name it, sort of... a variant of Form VII saber combat. I couldn't explain how I knew this...

"Form VII... Scorch... I thought you were a Form III user?"

"Only when I need it... and right now I need power more than defence... I know you are a Form IV user... aggressive, fast... you lack defensive posture and positioning..."

I heard Ash smirk from under his helmet. "Very good... you've been paying attention... sorry about your arm by the way... I hope you got it fixed..."

"Asshole..." I sneered "Enough talk."

"I agree." Replied Ash who came at me with a wide horizonatal slash which I backflipped over only to lunge forward and come in with a high diagonal strike towards the neck only for Ash to onehandedly cartwheel out of the way, going the same way my blade was. He returned fire with a reverse held blade trying to come in low only for me to narrowly block it with my blade.

'Maybe Form III was a better idea...' I thought switching back to a defensive stance to hold off his incoming lightning fast attacks.

"What's wrong Scorch?!" Ash taunted "You seem to have lost your attack power!" he vaulted over me and preformed a back half spin attack with another reverse handhold on his weapon but I managed to get my arms over my head just in time to lower my blade to block the mid section strike and my sword went over my shoulder.

I pushed his blade away, quickly spinning around on my hand, kicking out his footing, bringing my blade down on him only to get shoved away with an invisible force of energy... or something.

"We have the same powers Scorch... or did you forget that already!?" Ash taunted again.

"I'm getting real sick of your taunting you know!" I replied, getting annoyed.

"Ah good, I see its getting to you!"

I rushed at him, going aggressive as I wailed on him, striking quickly about eight or nine times. Most of my attacks either being dodged or blocked, but I could tell I was straining him since he was an all offence style. Unfortunately he found an opportunity to strike back and what resulted was another chain of block quickly, dodge, retaliate and this went on for a while, sparks flying whenever our blades connected, creating a sort of supernova glow around the point of impact.

We were nearing the edge of the hangar near the hangar bay doors... I could see for miles across the blue sea and the cliffs forming an U around the hangar with sea spires far below. It would have been a beautiful sight had I not been fighting for my life... however it made this clash of blades seem almost poetic, a final showdown if you will. It finally dawned on me... was this the future? This Ash, the GLA... would they be our new enemies? Fixer and this Sev guy... they would be assigned to my team of operatives? Operatives for who? Or what?

I blocked another strike from Ash as an explosion hit behind him, giving me just enough time to get through his guard and strike him across the face, searing through his helmet... with him falling to the ground.

I looked over towards where I'd come from, I saw Fixer and another huge burly guy standing next to him in a suit of what looked like old astronaut gear, only this was all metal and just... HUGE! The armor plates had to be at least three inches or more thick, surely this was like some kind of mini-mech suit and not the actual size of the guy. The visor for this armor flipped up, into the helmet and the gruff, red eyed man staring at me from within, a cigar in his mouth, smoke billowing out of his helmet grunted.

"Hell, it's about time..." he nodded towards the fallen rogue Spartan "Time you took this bastard down... you know how long it's been?" he held up a huge chaingun with a grenade launched slung under it, much too big for even me to carry.

The other guy, Fixer took his helmet off, he had jet black hair and probably the most shiny green eyes I've ever seen. This guy I could tell was something like a more manly version of Guiche or something, with more chest hair and actually competent.

"Thorn got away..." he sighed, holstering a Six shooter at his hip, 44. Platinum Magnum from the looks of it, a mighty big iron.

I heard a groan from the body of Ash... I looked down at him to see him moving a little.

"Give it up Ash, it's over..." Fixer said.

"No... not it's not" I heard a faint beep and before I could react a barrage of laser fire discharged from the rear of the hangar, from the small yellow one man fighter as it took off. The blast knocked all of us off our feet, I quickly jumped back up while Fixer and the big man, probably Sev, were down for a bit... I looked around franticly for Ash, I had to keep him from escaping but the lasers stirred up a bunch of smoke and it was hard to see.

Then I got hit over the head with a solid punch, I recoiled to avoid a follow up... turning around and that's when I stopped... I got punched in the gut hard and fell to my knees.

I looked back up at the face of Ash, a nasty cauterized cut across his face, missing his left eye... but there was no mistaking this... man... he knelt down infront of me...

"You cannot beat me Scorch... I am the original... I am the first..." he paused... his face... it was mine. "I am a monument to all your sins."

And then I woke up.

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Ok, ok, this was a pretty short chapter in hindsight but I just wanted to end it here, cuz... well... asshole cliffhangers...

Also for anyone who had read... some of my other work... you might have recognized a few characters in which case kudos to you for actually reading some of my other work!

Now then, do your usual! Leave a review to let me know what you think, be it positive or negative, just remember I'd appreciate some constructive feedback if you must be negative. But hey, if you really did like this chapter, then Fave, add to your follows list so you can actually tell when I update!

Now then, will I actually be able to crank another chapter out? I hope so because I love clichés!

WTYL guys!

-Rogue2k8