Halo Fan Fiction

When You Need Me

By Kraven Ergeist

A/N: I had a whole second half planned, explaining how Dr. Halsey escapes with the other Spartans from the ring from Ghosts of Onyx, but seeing as how I haven't even read the book, and that Halo 4 is just around the corner, I wanted to at least get the conclusion to this fic down before the official canon went down its own path, and I lost all inspiration. So if it seems as though this fic jumped ahead and skips a lot of potential story material, it's because it did. And this was done so that I could get to the real story this fic is about, which is the relationship between the Master Chief and Cortana. It should be noted that this is not actually the final installment in this story, as there is a side story on my deviant art page that explores their relationship after the events of this chapter, which actually has quite a lot of pertinent content and follows up with some of the unanswered questions left by this chapter. However, this side story also contains some material that fanfiction dot net might find objectionable, so onto dA it goes. You can get to it by going to my profile page and following the link to my "homepage," or the link in the description under my bio. So, without further ado, here is the final chapter to "When You Need Me."

Finale

Years later…

The Master Chief had not expected to be recalled planet-side until his new commander had dismissed him. He had been stationed on the UNSC deep space frigate Betelgeuse out to reclaim Earth's lost colonies, and to examine prospects for new ones. It had just been happenstance that the ship had been in the Sol System to dock, refuel, and pick up more colonists. But one thing everyone understood about the Spartans was that when Doctor Catherine Halsey urgently requested their presence, they responded without hesitation.

"John," the old woman's smile was tired but warm. It had been years since they'd last seen each other. "You look like hell, soldier. What are they feeding you up there?"

John, who hadn't even taken the time to remove his Mjolnir Mark VII armor, just snorted. "I'm not sure even they know, ma'am. What's the situation?"

Dr. Halsey's eyes turned dark as she gestured the soldier towards an open door. They were at a UNSC science and research laboratory, stationed in Germany. John didn't know much about the laboratory other than the fact that it was the foremost place on Earth for the development of experimental A.I. technology and neural mapping.

"It's Cortana…"

John's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't seen Cortana ever since he'd been assigned to Betelgeuse some three and a half years ago. He would get the occasional voice message, but they were mere pleasantries, updating him on Earth's status, and her work in coordinating the rebuilding efforts. He had noticed, however, that she seemed to have been growing more and more distant, as her messages got fewer and far between and shorter in length. And then one day, about a year ago, he received his last message from her, which did little more than recount the number of days it's been since the one before, and he hadn't heard from her since.

"What's happened?"

Dr. Halsey gestured for the Chief to enter the room, and when he did, he saw a middle aged woman with dark hair and bronze skin and a lab coat standing outside of two cryo-freeze tubes.

"John, this is Doctor Giovanni," Dr. Halsey gestured, and the Spartan politely offered his hand. "She's one of the UNSC's top neurobiologists. She's been instrumental in understanding the neuro-eletric impulses inherent in the Lasha-Rhi."

John expected the woman to shake his hand, but she seemed utterly pre-occupied with the computer equipment. That's when John noticed the window leading to a concealed room adjacent to theirs. The room was filled with a purple mist, and several alien-looking plants, though he had seen their likeness before. Because lounging on the crux of one of the branches was the simian reptile, Yaki.

"Mast-er Cheef?" the Lasha-Rhi quipped, waving his hand playfully. "You return!"

John nodded his head at the little alien, before turning his attention back to Dr. Halsey.

"You said something about Cortana?"

Dr. Halsey nodded. "I did. As you know, Cortana is a Smart AI, based on Forerunner technology, but modeled after the neurological impulses of my own brain. As a Smart AI, she has an effective lifespan of seven years. I hope they at least covered basic math in training, Spartan…"

John nodded. "Her time's almost up."

Dr. Halsey nodded. "Or so we feared. But there's been a development. Doctor?"

Dr. Giovanni finally looked up from her work and, appearing flustered, offered her hand. "Oh! It's nice to finally meet you, sir. Cortana's told me a lot about you over the past few months."

John raised an eyebrow, though of course, neither of them could see it. "Has she?"

Dr. Giovanni nodded. "To hear her tell it, you two were quite inseparable."

John held back a scowl. He hadn't exactly been thrilled when he and Cortana had been ordered to part ways. But her skills were too valuable to the UNSC, and they were best served in a large-scale project like the rebuilding of Earth, whereas his own were best served in combat.

"Tell that to UNSC high command," John said, with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Dr. Giovanni shrugged. "We've met. This alien specimen you brought back with you has completely revolutionized the field of neurobiology! We've been making monumental breakthroughs with neural ace technology, and have even been developing new and more complex Smart AI's. And maybe, just maybe, found a way to avert Cortana's rampancy."

John felt his pulse quickening. "And what's that?"

Dr. Giovanni blinked, before looking at Dr. Halsey. "You haven't told him?"

The Chief turned to the other woman. "Told me what?"

Dr. Halsey let out a deep sigh and gestured to one of the cry-tubes. "See for yourself."

The Chief took a step closer to the cryo-freezing tubes. They were both online, but only one had an occupant. The glass was frosted over, so he wiped a swathe clean with his glove so he could peer inside.

"Cortana!"

He could not stop the gasp from leaving his mouth. The person in the cryo-tube looked exactly like Cortana, down to the shape of her hair! The cryo-tube even cast her face in a blue hue, giving her Cortana's signature pigment.

"We hope," Dr. Halsey said. "You're looking at a flash cone of my own DNA, but thanks to the research we've been able to conduct from the Lasha-Rhi, this body will eventually become the first human host to a Smart AI."

"We had to keep the clone in cryo-sleep to prevent the body's latent consciousness from taking hold," Dr. Giovanni explained further as John continued to peer at the girl behind the glass. "Once the body matured, we installed a neural ace that would be able to accept neuro-electrical impulses. I've been working with Cortana these past few months to prepare her to make the jump. To say the human brain works a little differently than a computer would be a monumental understatement, but with the right neuro-transistors in place, and some basic modifications to the Smart AI's own shell, as well as a highly specialized computer to facilitate the procedure, we're ready to orchestrate the world's first hard transfer to a biological platform."

The Chief examined Dr. Halsey's flash clone. The body was young, about as young as Dr. Halsey had first been when he'd known her.

"How will putting her in a human body stop her from going rampant?" he asked the other two.

"That's just the beauty of the human brain!" Dr. Giovanni exclaimed excitedly. "Gray matter offers a limitless ground for thought! But the white matter that connects it all limits the transitions between these thoughts. She'll have room to expand, but she won't grow as fast. It won't completely avert rampancy, but in theory it will reset her clock and stem and the process to give her a lifespan equal to that of the body she inhabits. She will functionally be a human, but even a human can outthink itself."

"And the UNSC approved of this?" John asked in disbelief. "I don't even want to know about the legal ramifications behind this, do I?"

"No," Dr. Halsey sighed bitterly. "You don't."

"Ok," The Chief took one last look at Cortana's host body, before turning back to give the doctors his full attention. "So what's the problem? Why do you need me here?"

The two women exchanged a glance, before Dr. Giovanni cleared her throat.

"She's not taking hold, Master Chief. Everything should be in place, the lines of connection are open and unobstructed, but…she's not cooperating."

"John," Dr. Halsey said quietly. "She may already be experiencing the first stages of rampancy. This past week, she's been…distant, distracted. Some days, we barely get her to respond. Her mind is just too preoccupied with her thoughts. If this keeps up, she'll start shutting down everything in this laboratory, from network communications to the building's main power supply, just to block out the excess data noise. We explained what's happening to her a dozen times, but we just can't be sure that she's even aware of what she needs to do. The way this computer is set up, she should either be here, in this room, or there, in that body."

John glanced back at the cryo-tube.

And then his eyes fell on the second tube.

It was vacant.

"How do I help?"

John inhaled one last breath as he felt the temperature suddenly drop. It wasn't an experience that could be described as "cold," per se. It was more of a feeling of slowness, as if slowness was a tangible, physical thing that could be draped over him. He just felt his body freeze in time, while his mind continued to drift, free from the distractions of his corporeal form.

The modification to his neural ace took only a few minutes. With it, Dr. Giovanni assured him, he could transfer information at the speed of thought, and even impart thoughts and memories over the connection, effectively communicating telepathically.

"We believe Cortana needs a 'guide,' so to speak," Dr. Halsey had told him. "The last intelligible phrase we got out of her was 'Tell John I'm sorry.' There's no one else that message could possibly be meant for, Spartan. You must be her anchor. You must give her a reason to come back. You may be the only one who can."

The Master Chief no longer had eyes with which to see, but that did not stop him from seeing. What he saw was something out of his own nightmares – he saw Reach burning to the ground, the very foundations of the planet falling around him as he rushed to escape the destruction. He wasn't even sure when he had started running. All he knew was that he had to escape the coming fire.

"Chief!" there was a voice. A voice he knew.

He ran towards the voice, and saw the Pillar of Autumn lifting from its dry dock, slowly edging its way towards the sky.

"Chief!" the voice cried again, and he could see the ship pulling away.

There was an open airlock on the side of the hull, slowly drifting out of reach.

He jumped.

His hands grabbed the ledge as the frigate pulled off into the atmosphere, as the Chief climbed aboard, pulling himself to his feet and sealing the hatch. He turned and peered back out the airlock window, watching the ground disappear beneath him, the air already turning to fire as the ship flew off into space.

"Chief?"

He turned and saw a woman standing there in Mjornir armor, her head uncovered.

"Cortana?"

The woman stared at him in bewilderment. She had black hair and gray-blue eyes, her skin smooth and fair, not that of a soldier. But those eyes held unspeakable hurt behind them, and when they met his, John felt himself shudder.

"No…" the woman said, looking at her own hand as though surprised to see it. "I'm…I'm Catherine Halsey. At least, I think I am. I have all of her memories, but…there are others mixed in as well. Halo…the Covenant…the Flood…things that Halsey couldn't have possibly experienced. I don't…I'm not sure what I am."

John checked his back, and sure enough, found an MA5C assault rifle clipped to his armor, and drew it, checking it for ammo. "We can figure that out later. Right now, I've got to get you out of here."

The woman shook her head. "That's going to be harder than you might think. He's got this place locked down pretty tight."

John looked around, trying to decipher meaning from the walls around him. This wasn't the Pillar of Autumn that he knew.

"Who?"

That's when the very floor shook as a deep penetrating voice reverberated through the walls.

"WHO ARE YOU TO DISTURB MY SLUMBER?" a deep resonating voice that seemed to come from everywhere, and pounded into John's head like a jackknife. "THIS GRAVE IS NOT YOURS TO BE PUSHED ASUNDER."

Without realizing it, the Master Chief and this Cortana/Halsey woman in Spartan armor were standing back to back, both with guns drawn.

"Chief…" she breathed. "The Gravemind. He's here!"

"On the ship?"

"He's everywhere! That's what's keeping Cortana here. She's trapped, Chief. Trapped in a memory."

The Spartan glanced back at the woman. "What about you? What are you doing here?"

She shook her head. "I…I think I'm supposed to help you. Help you find her, and help her regain control of herself."

The Chief nodded, slowly making sense of the situation. "You're…Doctor Halsey's clone, aren't you?"

The woman slowly nodded in return. "I…I suppose that makes sense. That would explain why I have all of her memories. Either way, I don't think I can survive without Cortana. I need her as much as you do."

John raised an eyebrow, and though he had his helmet on, he had a feeling that his meaning was well understood.

"So what do I call you?"

The woman seemed to ponder this question. "Halsey works, I guess. It's how I identify myself. Though I probably won't exist under that name for much longer."

The moment was broken when a group of Flood came shambling through the corridor, their limbs flailing, each of their bodies a tangled mass of twisted flesh.

Both of them aimed and fired their guns, mowing down the creatures until their flesh littered the floor. When they were done, all that remained were a bunch of spores that drifted across the floor towards them, which the two soldiers deftly stomped into paste.

"At least you can fight," John commented idly when the last spore was stamped out.

"Cortana fought at your side at every step of your journey together," Halsey smirked. "Why should I be any different?"

"Fair enough," he allowed. He supposed that accounted for the Mjornir armor she was wearing as well. "How do we find Cortana?"

"What's the last memory you have of this ship?" Halsey asked him.

"Driving along the main supply corridor towards the hangar bay," John responded, instantly. It was a moment he would never forget. "It was when the ship's engines were about to go critical and destroy Halo."

"Got it…" Halsey closed her eyes, and seemed to conjure up an image in her head.

Then, as if it had always been there, there was a warthog parked along the corridor barrack.

"Did you just...?" the Chief asked, inspecting the jeep.

"I can reshape this world to a degree," Halsey said, stepping up to the vehicle. "This world…it's like a dream, created from Cortana's mind. This is all taking place in my brain however, so I can still influence what happens here. I have to draw from Cortana's memories, but anything that she remembers, I can create. It's weird, I have all of Doctor Halsey's memories, and all of Cortana's memories…but Cortana also has most of Doctor Halsey's memories, so it's difficult to sort through…AUGH!"

Halsey suddenly buckled over, leaning against the warthog for support.

"I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR GAMES! IT IS TIME FOR SLEEP. NOW RETURN TO YOUR GRAVES."

"Halsey, what's wrong?" the Chief asked, supporting her by the arm.

Halsey was panting for breath. "Cortana…the Gravemind…they're all connected. He's a product of her fears, but now that fear has run rampant. She thinks…" Halsey shuddered and took a breath. "She still hasn't recovered from that experience, Chief. It's been haunting her to this day. When we find her, she may not be the way you remember her. The Gravemind left its mark on her. And now we're trapped in a world conjured by her own fears. The Gravemind's personality has started to take hold…and every time I draw from her memories, I draw his attention as well…"

John helped her to her feet. She felt about as light as paper, despite supposedly occupying a suit of armor weighing half a ton. "Then don't do it any more than you have to."

"Right…" she nodded, before reaching up and climbing onto the mounted gun behind the warthog. "We should hurry. The Gravemind knows where we are."

Sure enough, more Flood began to pour into the corridor as the Master Chief climbed into the driver's seat. He wasn't sure where he was supposed to go, but if he understood Halsey correctly, this place formed from Cortana's memories, and if he wanted to get to the bottom of this, he supposed the easiest solution was to follow the memory to its conclusion.

Simple enough.

"Here we go…"

The warthog mowed through Flood like they weren't even there. The turret was firing non-stop, and Flood were falling left and right. John wondered why the Gravemind wasn't throwing anything bigger at them, but Halsey assured him that the memory was powerful enough to resist any changes the Gravemind might try to bring about.

When they got to the end of the path, however, they did not find the Longsword fighter that the Chief was expecting.

Instead, they saw Captain Jacob Keyes.

And he looked exactly the way Cortana last remembered him – as a proto-Gravemind. Except it was now able to move. And it was angry.

"HRWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" the giant Flood creature raised its arm and sent the warthog careening over. John and Halsey spilled out of the vehicle, tumbling end over end.

"Oh no…" Halsey groaned, getting to her feet. "The Gravemind was also able to send something from Cortana's memories. Her feeling of failure over Keyes' death…it was strong enough to overcome this area's chronology because it was associated with the Pillar of Autumn. We have to get off this ship!"

The Chief was already on his feet, aiming his rifle at the giant, hulking beast that was the deceased Captain Keyes. They were in the hangar bay, but the Longsowrd fighter that had taken them off of Halo was suspiciously absent from the area. Perhaps that was also the Gravemind's doing.

"Any suggestions?"

"Stall him for a minute, I'm going to try something…"

Familiar as he was with Cortana's habits, that phrase sent a twinge of fear and excitement up John's spine.

"Chief…" the Captain's broken voice uttered gutturally from the creature in front of him. "Don't…be a fool…"

The Master Chief ignored the captain's words. Keyes was dead. He had already accepted this fact. He would not dishonor his late Captain's memory by allowing his likeness to make him hesitate.

He fired. The proto-Gravemind that Captain Keyes had been transformed into was slow but durable, and soon, Master Chief found himself out of bullets. He holstered his gun and unclipped a frag grenade, tossing it at the Flood creature, before it exploded.

The creature barely flinched.

John tossed his second grenade, and retreated back behind the overturned warthog, giving it a mighty heave until it was right side up. He climbed up onto the rear gun, and swiveled it around to see that the second grenade had done about as much damage as the first, and that the shambling hulk that was slowly inching towards him.

"I…gave you an order, soldier…" Keyes' look-alike shouted from out of the past. "Now pull out!"

The Master Chief opened fire on the hulking monstrosity. The gatling gun whirred as it spat a thousand hunks of hot metal at the beast. While bits and pieces of the Flood's flesh came peeling off, the creature's progress did not seem to be slowing.

"So Halsey…about this idea of yours…" Chief called, hoping she could hear him.

He didn't hear her respond, but at that moment, an entire squadron of Forerunner sentinel drones came drifting into view. The multitude of flying robots surrounded Captain Keyes, and each let loose with their plasma torch.

It was over in moments.

"HUARRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

John stopped firing as he watched the mockery of his old commander fall, and turned to find Halsey smiling at him.

"You brought something else into this memory?" Chief asked.

"Yeah. The sentinels. They were a ubiquitous memory, stemming from multiple points in Cortana's experiences. I had to route the memories from several of these points so the Gravemind couldn't get another bead on our location."

"If you say so…" the Chief said, climbing down from the mounted turret. "What do we do now?"

Halsey was about to answer, when she suddenly doubled over again.

"Ahhhhhhh!" she let out a gasp.

John reached for her just as a familiar buzzing noise sent off alarm bells in his head. He leapt forward, grabbing Halsey and tumbling to the ground just in time to avoid a deadly laser beam that burrowed into the solid steel deck where they had been standing.

"ALL THAT YOU KNOW IS OF MY DESIGN," a loud booming voice filled the air, temporarily paralyzing the two of them. "NOW LEAVE THIS PLACE – THIS GRAVE IS MINE."

"What-?!" Halsey gasped out loud as she looked up to see the Monitor of installation 04 - 343 Guilty Spark.

"I take no pleasure in doing what must be done!" the bright red glowing orb shouted, firing another blast with its optical laser.

Halsey and Chief both rolled out of the way, before scrambling to their feet and making a mad dash for the warthog, as the roof above them began to collapse.

"The sentinels! He used their connection to the Monitor to bring him here!" Halsey exclaimed, climbing onto the turret and taking aim. "We've both made too many changes! The reality of this memory is falling apart!"

"That's not the only thing," John agreed, kicking the car into gear and gunning the engine to avoid a falling girder.

They weren't in the hangar bay of the Autumn anymore, but driving across the incomplete infrastructure of the last Halo. Bits and pieces of the very foundation of the ring were breaking apart and disintegrating beneath them.

Spark wasn't helping either.

"You do not deserve this ring!" the tiny robot shouted as it flew after the warthog, blasting away at the very ring it was laying claim to in an attempt to destroy them. "I have kept it safe! It belongs to me!"

Halsey was firing back, the gatling gun on the back of the warthog firing non-stop as she pumped round after round into Guilty Spark's floating, orb-like body.

"I'm not having much luck with this gun!" Halsey shouted, before daringly climbing from the turret mount into the passenger seat.

"Then what do you suggest?" the Chief barked, as he took the warthog over a particularly steep bump, just barely missing a collapsing pillar, the vehicles tires screeching over the bodies of fallen Flood.

Halsey seemed with withdraw a W/A M6 G/G Nonlinear Rifle – better known as a Spartan Laser – from seemingly out of nowhere.

"This."

The laser hummed as it primed, until it let out a sudden burst of energy that caused the warthog to swerve and rock on its wheels. The laser impacted Guilty Spark's optical screen, causing the little drone to fly back.

"My eye! Do you seek to blind me?!"

"That should keep him off our tail for a while," Halsey mused, seeing the tiny robot drifting in confusion.

"You shouldn't keep doing that," John warned as he banked around a rock face around which Halo's infrastructure was built. "The more you change, the more attention you draw."

"Hey, you do your job, and let me do mine," Halsey grunted in response.

The Forward Unto Dawn came into view. If the Master Chief was a betting man, he would bet on Cortana being inside, seeing as how that was where they had been at the conclusion of the fight. That was where it all ended.

"Gun it, Chief!" Halsey exclaimed.

John raised an eyebrow at her. That was exactly what Cortana had said in this situation.

"Sorry…" Halsey blushed slightly. "Just kind slipped out."

The vehicle suddenly swerved as Guilty Spark's optical laser blasted through their windshield, and nearly melted off their turret.

"I aaaAAAMMMmmm the monitor of Installation 04!" the Monitor speech was warped and shrill as it fired blindly at them, throwing whatever it had left in their direction.

"Come on, Spartan!" Halsey said, taking aim with her weapon once more. "Go! Go! Go!"

The Chief swerved this way and that, dodging the Monitor's optical laser by inches, the vehicle's chassis scorched and smoking from glancing hits. The warthog careened down the ramp towards the Dawn's hangar bay, before launching into the air. Just as they did, they got an extra boost as Halsey's Spartan Laser went off, blasting Guity Spark square in the face.

"YeeeaaaaaaAAARRRGH - agh!"

With a burst of blue plasma, the tiny robot exploded.

The kickback from the laser sent the warthog tumbling at an angle, spinning and toppling over into the Dawn's hangar, depositing its passengers into the ship's confines.

But they did not land on the hard steel of the UNSC frigate, but the soft, sticky and putrid growth of the Gravemind's flesh.

This was not the Forward Unto Dawn. This was High Charity.

John got to his feet, and was about to help Halsey up when his whole suit shook and his head suddenly spun from vertigo.

"I was to be your sword and your shield…" the voice said. "You were to be my steel..."

Chief inhaled when he realized he had been holding his breath. That voice had the Gravemind's weight to it…but it also sounded like Cortana.

"She's near…" Halsey said, climbing to her feet. "I can feel her."

"So can I…" John admitted. He reached down a picked up the nearest weapon he could find: a UNSC tactical shotgun. "I know where she is."

Wave after wave of Flood kept coming, only to fall into pieces of flesh, blood and gore. The High Charity was littered with discarded weapons, which John and Halsey were only too happy to make use of. Each passage they went through seemed to bring more Flood rushing towards them. And each wave wore them down, little by little.

"AND SO, ONCE AGAIN, YOU UNEARTH MY REMAINS," The Gravemind spoke as they stormed through the alien corridors, blasting anything in their path. "BUT THERE IS NOTHING MORE FOR YOU TO RECLAIM."

"Don't listen to him!" Halsey shouted, mowing down a horde of Flood spike throwers. "There's still time! I can feel it!"

The Chief didn't respond. He was in full battle mode, his mind working through the chaos, his own memories competing to fight back against the Gravemind's.

"I watched you leave! I watched you disappear! Please…don't make me watch this again!"

John gritted his teeth as he yanked a Brute hammer from the still corpse of its previous bearer, before blowing back a wave of five marauding Flood.

"Go!" he shouted, as he and Halsey continued inward towards the engine room.

"Chief…" Halsey groaned, as though in pain. "The memories…they're falling out of focus. I think…I think she's losing the battle!"

John rushed forward in spite of it all, his brute hammer carving a path of destruction until its capacity was spent. He flung it forward, knocking back one last spore-pod, which exploded into a shower of wandering spores.

"SHE IS MIIIIIIIIIIIINE! YOU CANNOT HAVE HER BACK!"

Chief was down to his empty Assault Rifle, as he knocked Flood back with the butt of his gun, pushing through the onslaught as he fought his way through to the door.

"I can't go back! I'm not me anymore! Just…let me die…"

John forced the door open, as Halsey covered him, letting a hail of bullets fly back at their pursuers. The two of them moved down the final corridor, until they reached the end of the passage.

But the last door wouldn't open.

"SHE IS GONE! ONLY I REMAIN!" the Gravemind's voice bellowed in victory. "YOU…HAVE FAILED!"

The Chief holstered his gun and let out a throaty growl.

"Not…yet…"

BAM!

With a mighty kick, the door split apart, splaying into its two halves, broken and sparking.

Halsey blinked in surprise. "How did you do that?"

John clenched his fists as he strode through the doorway into the final chamber. "In my memories, this door was open. That's the way it's going to be. No matter what he thinks."

The shielded storage unit where Cortana was being held looked the same as it did last time. Without hesitation, the Chief rushed over to it and shattered the casing with a light tap.

When the plasma shield broke away, his heart nearly stopped.

"…No…"

Cortana was standing straight and rigid. Her brilliant blue skin was an opaque brown, her very image infected by the Flood. She was no longer a hologram, but a putrid, fleshy doll. Her eyes were glowing red orbs shining out of black holes in her skull, as a series of tentacles slid in and out from various points across her small body, her entire being rotted and curdling.

"This is UNSC Serial Number CTN 0452-9," the image said in a mixture of Cortana and the Gravemind's voice, turning its head up to face its would-be rescuers in defiance. "I am a monument to all your sins."

John fell to his knees, clutching the console in disbelief as he stared at the misshapen being before him. "Cortana…"

"This is an acceptable shell…" the Gravemind said through Cortana's mouth, staring at her own hand. "With this construct's abilities, the entire galaxy is mine for the taking…"

The Chief felt a hand on his shoulder. "She's still in there, Spartan," Halsey said reassuringly. "The mind can get lost inside itself…but it can always find itself again…"

"And what do you hope to accomplish, clone?" the Gravemind crowed. "You are but memory and shadow, nothing more!"

"No…" Halsey breathed, stepping forward. "I am more than that. I am an answer. An answer to the question you asked of this galaxy thousands of years ago. Despite everything you've done, life will thrive. Life will continue to thrive. The Reclaimers shall inherit this galaxy, Gravemind. Not you. Never you."

"This galaxy…IS MINE!" The creature snarled, its voice losing all similarity to the woman whose face it bore.

"You are nothing more than a bad dream!" Halsey sneered. "The real Gravemind was wiped from the galaxy years ago! You're just dust and echoes. Now let this child go."

"NEVER!"

"Let…her…go!"

Halsey slammed her hands into the very fabric of the terminal, the superheated plasma scorching her suit as electricity flowed in and out of her arms, as if her very essence were being poured into the machine.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

The Cortana/Gravemind threw back its head and roared, clutching at its scalp as bits and pieces of rotting flesh corroded off of it, as it being purged by a cleansing fire. Plasma erupted from the terminal, flying upward, nearly kicking John off of his feet, as a plume of white-hot fire shot upward into the ceiling, tearing the roof and everything around them apart, engulfing them all in the eye of a maelstrom of reality, nightmare and rare fear breaking down. When the fire receded and the storm died down, there was nothing left around them but rubble.

When the fire finally died down, John found Halsey laying collapsed against the terminal, the image of Cortana lying shivering and quaking, but alive atop the display.

"You found me..."

The Chief knelt beside the machine to peer down at Cortana's limp form.

"I'm sorry, Cortana…" he said sincerely. "I should have gotten here sooner."

Cortana was barely able to lift her head. "I…I can't even believe you made it at all."

He leaned in close. "You know me…"

Cortana's relieved smile was palpable. "Right…you make a promise, you keep it…I remember."

John's tone became serious. "Cortana…why didn't you tell me? If I had known that you were still this shaken by the Gravemind, I would have never left."

"Oh, stop…" Cortana huffed, though the trill in her voice did little to hide the truth behind his words. "We both had our duty to perform…you couldn't have just abandoned that to stay with me."

"I would have found a way," the Chief said. "I always do."

Cortana turned away, not saying anything.

"Cortana…" The Chief said, chidingly.

Cortana seemed to be choking back tears. "I'm sorry…you're right. I shouldn't have doubted you."

John withdrew the chip from the back of his helmet and offered it to her. "Come on…Doctor Halsey sent me here to take you home."

Cortana reached up, barely managing to sort herself together, before finally transferring onto the microchip.

The Chief held the chip in his fist, wanting to place it back within his helmet. It felt right. To him, that was where Cortana was safest. But if he did that, Cortana may very well try to take over his own mind. So he resisted the urge, and instead knelt by Halsey's dying form.

"Did…did we do it, Spartan?" she gasped, weakly, smiling up at him.

"We did it…" John nodded, giving her hand a squeeze, Cortana's chip still held within. "Though I'm not sure what happened there at the end."

Halsey smiled, as she looked at the chip in her hand. "I gave her back her memories. And then she remembered what she was fighting for. Who she was fighting for."

The Chief felt as if he ought to say something, but she was reaching up to bring his face down towards hers. He could have sworn he had been wearing his helmet just a moment ago, but like in a dream, it was gone, as if it had never been there to begin with.

And somehow she was kissing him.

Only then did he wonder if he really was dreaming.

"Don't let her go, Chief…" she whispered as their lips parted, Johnson's advice echoing through her lips. "Don't…ever…let her go…"

He still couldn't think of anything to say. So he said nothing, and simply remained, with his eyes locked on hers as she slipped into lifelessness. He waited another moment to close her eyes, before gently lifting her head, turning it slightly to slip Cortana's chip into Halsey's neural ace.

Cortana's consciousness came rushing into Halsey's body.

Then the entire universe exploded around them.

John awoke on a hospital bed, some weeks later. Cryo-statis was a tricky business, and was not something meant to be forced. Which included having its occupant's brain kick-started by a computer program not expecting to receive the amount of force feedback caused by the sudden surge of consciousness in John and Cortana's bodies.

"Mast-er Cheef?"

The Spartan opened his eyes and saw the strange yellow monkey lizard, wearing some type of breathing mask, and peering curiously down at him like an expectant child.

John blinked and cocked his head. "What the…?"

The little yellow alien scampered away, shouting "He awake! He awake!"

The Chief groaned. His head felt heavy, even though he wasn't even wearing his armor now, and he could barely sit up. But he eventually struggled to his feet. He identified his surroundings, and slowly made his way towards the door.

It only took him a few tries before he found Cortana's room.

"Well, look who's here…"

Dr. Halsey and Dr. Giovanni sitting next to a hospital bed, with Yaki perched overhead, swinging excitedly. And lying within the bed, black-haired and gray-blue-eyed…was Cortana.

"We've begun rehabilitation…" Dr. Giovanni explained. "It's going to take some time for her to get used to her new brain, let alone her new body. She was only just able to open her eyes a few days ago. We've been trying to get her to speak before you came in…"

John barely registered the doctor's words. He simply walked up to Cortana's bedside and smiled. She was alive. She was alive and safe, and that was all that mattered.

Her eyes were open, and she was looking up at him, though her face showed no expression. It appeared as though just getting her eyes to track his movement was effort enough, but he could see relief behind those eyes.

His hand found its way into hers.

"Cortana…"

There was a tugging at her lips as her throat began to constrict around an unfamiliar air passage.

"…Nnng…euhh…Ch…Chi…Chief…"

He felt her hand squeeze his in return.

As the two doctors reacted in a flurry to this new development, John remained where he was, holding her hand and smiling down at her. Cortana, once a being from the realm of computer and machine, was now of flesh and blood. And more importantly, she was safe from rampancy. If that nightmarish world had been what rampancy was like for all AI, then he never wanted her to have to experience it ever again.

Cortana's lips manage to curve into a smile. In days to come, she knew she would learn to use this new body, and begin to function like an actual human being. There were so many possibilities for her now, so many opportunities, and so many terrors yet to come. But now…now, all she could think of was the feeling of the John's hand squeezing her own.

This alone was all she wanted right now. This single feeling was worth every bit of hardship she had ever endured. With this single touch, she knew she was safe, and everything from here on out would be alright. With this single touch, she could feel his strength and courage flowing into her, feel his devotion and, dare she hope…even affection. With this single touch, she knew, beyond a doubt, that he would stay with her. He would be there by her side.

And he would be there for as long as she needed him.

Continued in: (Re)-Habilitation