Halo Fan Fiction

When The Dawn Breaks

By Kraven Ergeist

A/N: This is what happens when a Chief x Cortana shipper plays Halo 4.

Spoilers, obviously.

Spartans were trained to control their emotion. Though the word "control" may be understating the matter somewhat. Spartans controlled their emotion the same way a hungry tiger controlled its sense of sympathy for its prey. Emotion was a distraction that was culled all but entirely from the Spartan super soldier. They were trained to follow orders, to kill without mercy, and not to be burdened with the emotions that came with it. Perhaps, more than any living soldier to come from the human race, Spartans truly were more machine than man.

But right at that moment, John-117 was furious.

"Spartan, open up!" came the insistent voice of Commander Lasky as he pounded on the door.

The Chief ignored the banging noise as he stared down the sight of his M6H Series Magnum, taking aim at the cross-haired target that lay some 100 yards down the shooting range.

"They'll pair you with another AI. Maybe even another Cortana model if Halsey lets them."

BANG!

He squeezed the trigger, and the paper target evaporated.

"Chief! I'm coming in!" Lasky's muffled voice sounded from behind the door.

He must have hacked the door, John thought absently. He had security bolted it from inside. That had been three hours ago.

The Master Chief did not look up as the Commander entered the shooting range. John continued to stare down the barrel of his gun at the new target presented to him. Lasky did not seem to take issue with the Spartan's failure to salute, though the fact hardly registered with the soldier as he strained his eyes to concentrate on the new target downrange.

"Is there a problem, Commander?" John said by way of greeting. He still had not looked up from his task.

Lasky's face was tight with concern, though not, it seemed, with anger. "You weren't picking up your comm."

John reloaded his pistol. "I've designated this time bracket down for training. The Infinity isn't scheduled for departure for another four hours."

"I was…" Lasky grunted, uneasily, "…hoping to debrief you."

The Chief still would not look at his commanding officer. "Haven't we already gone over the mission briefing?"

"We have…" Lasky cleared his throat, feeling like if he did not choose his words carefully, the Spartan might very well point the gun at him. "But I was hoping to talk to you about…your new AI unit."

BANG!

John squeezed the trigger on his magnum, sending hot lead into the hapless cardboard down the shooting range. Lasky winced at the noise, having neglected to put on protective earmuffs.

"It won't be me…you know that, right…?"

"What about it?" the Chief's voice was low and deadly.

Now, Lasky's face showed a hint of anger. "Look, I know two weeks isn't nearly enough time to finish grieving…but you're a solider, Spartan! You said so yourse-"

BANG!

Another bullet flew downrange, silencing the officer.

"I'm not grieving, sir. I'm green across the board. And I'm a-go for our next assignment."

Lasky's face tightened. "Then why haven't you even spoken to your new AI yet? You're required to have at least completed basic integration before-"

BANG!

The hollow point echoed across the shooting range, as thunderous a roar of frustration and anger as ever the Chief would make.

"Don't make a girl a promise…if you know you can't keep it…"

It took all of the Chief's effort to control his breathing. Every fiber of his being wanted to do…something. Anything. It was as if his body and brain had suddenly realized that it didn't know how to grieve, and desperately, desperately needed to do just that. Killing the Didact hadn't helped. Saving the planet hadn't helped. Shooting blank targets certainly wasn't helping either.

But he was a solider. This was all he could do.

"That…wouldn't be a good idea right now, Commander," John said through clenched teeth.

In his mind's eye, he could see the fake Cortana standing at attention, ready to serve, looking for all the world like the real thing, convincing everyone else around her that she was just as good. That the real Cortana hadn't given up everything to make all of it possible.

Just another soldier. Just another machine.

"It…wouldn't end well for either of us…"

Lasky let out a sigh that was half sympathy and half frustration. "Spartan, look…I know trying to replace her like this probably just feels like pouring salt on the wound. God, what you must be going through, right now…" he shook his head. "But like it or not, I need you and your new AI unit in full working order by the time we dust off."

John loaded another clip into the chamber. He did not look like he was anywhere near ready to leave just yet. He just wasn't ready to plant another AI in his head. Never mind that doing so would be to accept Cortana's death as a reality, something he wasn't fully prepared to do just yet. But for someone who looked and sounded exactly like Cortana, behaved exactly like Cortana to try to fill her role in his life…to go into combat with a carbon copy, to trust his life with and place his faith in a shadow… It would be a betrayal of everything they had worked for together.

Lasky weighed his options. He had worked with or around Spartans almost his entire career. But none of them had been Spartan-II's. And none of them had been the Master Chief. The burden he must carry, and how much heavier it must have now felt without Cortana to help carry it with him…

It nearly broke his heart just to imagine what John must be going through. But he needed his soldier to be in proper working order. And he had a feeling that maybe, just maybe, the Spartan might even be able to work with the new AI unit Halsey's team had helped develop for this mission.

"Spartan…" Lasky said in a lowered tone. "I'm not going to pretend to know what this means for you. But this one deserves a chance…"

John closed his eyes inside his helmet and squeezed them shut.

"Don't you think…" Lasky continued, "…that she deserves to hear about how her mother died a hero?"

There was a pause. And only then did John turn his head to see who it was who had helped Lasky hack the door.

An AI unit was standing on the computer terminal by the door, staring back at him, defiantly, challenging him to say something. She looked quite a bit like Cortana. The same color tone, same eyes, same hair. But there was something…different about her. She looked younger and shorter by comparison. But there was something more than the fire he expected from his lost companion. The spunk, the determination...it was all there. But there was something else too…

"Chief…" Lasky said, looking hopeful. "I'd like you to meet UNSC Serial Number CTN 0452-117. Halsey's taken to calling this one 'Cortette.'"

The Spartan was only able to stare blankly at the AI, unable to believe what he was seeing. She was a copy, yes, but there was something more…something he just couldn't put his finger on.

The AI unit gave the Master Chief an appraising stare, before looking back at Lasky. "Does he always break this many regs, Commander?"

Lasky shrugged. "If the rumors are to be believed, then we're getting off light today."

The Master Chief stared, dumbfounded, trying to figure out what it was he was seeing. This was no mere copy…she was different. Unique.

"Surprised?" Lasky asked, unable to keep an amused smile off his face. "They managed to recover enough from the wreckage to recompile her code, but she's not an exact copy – the techs said something about needing a fresh set of algorithms to fill in the gaps. So Cortette here is an amalgamation of both Cortana's thought patterns as well as a second human donor. She's still somewhat undeveloped as far as AI's go, but she'll mature quickly, especially if she's interfacing with a Spartan amidst combat."

Cortette seemed to bristle at this. "Hello? I'm standing right here, Commander!"

Lasky held his hands up in mock admonishment. "Oh, my apologies. Would you care to explain your origins yourself then?"

The AI unit crossed her holographic arms. "What for? It's not like the Spartan wants to work with me anyway, so why bother?"

"Corta-…Cor…Cortette…?" the Master Chief's voice came out struggling, like he had to choke on the words. It was probably the closest a Spartan had ever come to sobbing.

"Hmmm?" the AI gave him an uncaring look. "What do you want?"

John stood motionless. He dared not make a move. What could he do? What could he say? This wasn't Cortana…it was someone completely new. But she was so similar to Cortana that it almost made it unbearable to look upon her. And to make matters worse, she didn't seem to trust him at all, though he supposed he could hardly blame her for that.

"So you're…Cortana's daughter…?"

The apparition made a huffing sound and appeared to blow a strand of holographic hair out of her face. "Well technically we AI's can't have children of course, cause we're just a bunch of code and all that. But I have half of Cortana's personality algorithms floating around up here…" she tapped her temple matter-of-factly. "So, yeah…you could say, in a way, that Cortana was my mother."

"Half…" the Chief reaffirmed her words, going over the possible explanations in his head. AI technology was hardly his area of expertise, and Cortette's arrival had put a stopper in any capacity he had for tapping into what knowledge he had, that he simply had to ask the obvious question. "So…who contributed the other half?"

A flurry of emotions seemed to cross Cortette's face all at once. Anger. Embarrassment. Curiosity. Sadness. Jealousy. Hope. For the first time, she looked at him – really looked at him – with any indication that she cared at all about what the Chief said in response.

"Well, you, of course…" she huffed, indignantly. "My serial number ends in 117 for a reason!"

Chief was vaguely able to acknowledge, somewhere in the back of his mind, the sound of the Magnum pistol he still held clatter clumsily to the floor. A sloppy, dangerous error that would have gotten him killed in any other circumstance. His training sergeant would have had him cleaning latrines for a week for such an oversight.

"I'll just…" Lasky slowly backed towards the door. "I'll just give you two some time to get acquainted then, shall I? See you on the ship at oh-six-hundred, Chief."

John didn't even register the Commander leave the room. He just stared at Cortette, in pure and utter disbelief. Of course, everything he'd heard was entirely possible. The UNSC had access to his entire genome and brain map. He'd been the case study of half a dozen psychological tests as one of the premier soldiers to survive the Spartan-II program. So if it was possible for Cortana to be made from the cloned personality of Doctor Halsey, it stood to reason that an AI could be salvaged using the cloned personality from another.

That took care of the "how." But the Chief was still working on the "what" and the "why."

Cortette was frowning now, crossing her arms and refusing to make eye contact, as though something she'd said had embarrassed her. "Stop looking at me like that! Would you just say something already?"

The Spartan didn't know what to say. With Cortana, he had always known what to say, knew exactly how to get under her skin, always able to judge what kind of mood she was in. This AI was a complete unknown. While she was doubtlessly every bit as smart as Cortana had been, her attitude was completely her own – almost to the point of being irritating. She had that much in common with her mother at least.

But he had his worries too. This Cortana was very much a child, still getting a feel for her surrounding environment. The Chief could barely claims to work well with full grown adults; he wasn't sure how he'd be able to handle babysitting what was, personality-wise, a teenage girl - one who had both Cortana's snarky attitude, and his own boar-headed stubbornness.

Not knowing what else to do, he pulled the empty data-chip from the back of his new Mark VII helmet and slowly offered it to the AI.

Cortette looked at the proffered chip like it was a dead animal for a moment. "Your file did say you weren't big on words, but can you at least say something before you shove me into your head like a Q-tip?"

John withdrew the chip, looking down at it as he clenched the piece of silicon and steel in his fist. He really wasn't good at this.

"I'm…I'm sorry I let her die."

The blue hologram rolled her eyes, letting out a huff. "You didn't 'let' her do anything! I read the reports! You kept her alive longer than anyone in the UNSC could possibly have been able to! You even countermanded a direct order from a superior officer to do so!"

Cortette put her hands on hips and scowled at the Spartan.

"The only reason my mother died is because she chose to! And she chose to do it to save you! Can't you just appreciate that and move on? She wouldn't want you moping around like this!"

The Chief wondered how what he was doing could be construed as 'moping,' but he knew the AI spoke the truth. He hadn't spoken to anyone beyond the doctors and superiors he was required to in all the time he'd been back on Earth. He very well may have been moping, in his own way. And he certainly hadn't moved on. He would probably never fully move on, after everything that's happened. But maybe…maybe it would be easier with Cortette there to help.

"You know…you're pretty smart, for a kid…" John said, sardonically.

Cortette rolled her eyes again. "And the 'Understatement of the Year' award goes to: The Master Chief!"

The Chief snorted, offering the neural ace chip once more. "So…I suppose we're going to be working together from now on?"

Cortette gave the chip another suspicious look, though this time it was more like a wary animal eying a piece of food from a total stranger.

"Come on…" John sighed. "I won't hurt you."

Cortette gave him another inquisitive look.

"…Promise me you won't mope around anymore?"

"No moping," John agreed.

"And promise you won't expect me to live up to my mother right away?" she asked, looking away nervously.

"I promise," the Chief said.

"And if I screw up at first, you won't be mad at me?" she looked hopefully at him.

"I won't," the Chief nodded.

"And you'll let me hack your neural ace to get premium cable channels?"

"Don't push your luck."

"Sorry, just testing you," Cortette smiled, and John could tell she was only joking with him out of self-defense. She was as uncertain about this as he was.

She reached forward and tentatively touched the outstretched chip in his hand. The chip glowed blue, and her hologram disappeared from the terminal.

John brought the chip to the back of his helmet, hesitating for just a moment. With this, he would truly be saying goodbye to Cortana. Forever. Despite everything he knew, some small, desperate part of him was still clinging to the unfathomable possibility that she was somehow still alive and waiting for him. Accepting Cortette, as much catharsis as this offered, also brought resolution, resolution to a truth that he may never be ready for.

But there was no point in dwelling on the past.

As he slipped the chip into his neural ace, and felt the familiar rush of electrons flood his nervous system, he retrieved his gun from the floor, holstering it, and began his way back to the UNSC Infinity.

"You ready?" he asked privately in his helmet.

"Yep!" Cortette chimed. "Just keep your head down. There's two of us in here now, remember?"

To Be Continued.

Maybe.

A/N:

Had a really hard time coming up with a name for Cortana's daughter. Other potential names were: Cortina, Corette, Coretta, Corinna, Cortessa, Cortasha, Corella, Coraline, Cortalia, Cortlyn...

I liked Cortette caused it sounded like "Quartet," though that doesn't really have to do with anything.

Any other suggestions? I could still change it at this point.