Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I am so super sorry for the long, long wait! I have been so busy with different stories, work, moving, friends and family that I haven't been able to focus so solely on my stories, like I wanted to. I am so sorry about that! I loved hearing from all of you and you help me push forward, though the idea drought that I was going through. I really like where this is going and hope that you do too! Your support means so much to me. I can't update as much as I like with all of my stories or help that if I come up with a new idea, I have to write it. I hope that y'all would be patient with me but I understand otherwise. Thank you for all your support so far! Let me know what you think! Goodnight!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Warnings: OOCness, unbeta'd, language.
Word Count: 4,993
Blue's usually stoic, or contemplative, facial expression is morphed into one of wonder and curiosity. Her data-stream filled blue eyes flicker back and forth as she stares up at the green armored man in awe. She leans up on her tip toes, as if trying to get a closer look at the green armored man. There is flashes and images in her memory banks. They are hazy and quick, but she knows that there is a lot of data associated with them. Data that she doesn't understand.
"John, I..." Her blue eyebrows pull together. "I remember you! I remember... you are my... we are..." She shakes her head, unable to find the words. She knows all of the alien languages that have been recorded on the holonet yet she can't find the word that would accurately depict what their relationship was exactly. She can tell that she spent a lot of time with him. A lot of time in his suit, helping guide him. In consoles, looking up at him and others, giving advice and telling them what to do next. But the many of them, hold one thing in common, he's always there. He's watching over her just as much as she is watching over him. They were always together. Or at least, mostly. "What are we to each other?"
Sierra One-One-Seven stares down at her, contemplatively on his part. He shakes his head slowly. "I don't know, Cortana. I don't know what the proper word for us is called. The only one I know is "friend"."
Cortana frowns, looking away. It was probably the only word that she knew too, yet for some reason it didn't seem right. It didn't convey the depth that she knows she somehow shares with John. She sees it; flashes, images. The two of them together. She's spent more time in his helmet than she remembers. He's a big part of her life, if not the entirety of it. He means a lot to her, and subconsciously, her systems have been pushing her to find him. She doesn't know why, just that he means a lot to her.
Maybe being friends is part of it. Still, the word doesn't do this connection justice. There is this nagging feeling that Cortana doesn't know how to comprehend. It's not something that she should be able to do. It's not natural for her.
"I suppose that will have to do for now," Cortana says slowly.
The large armored man leans down so that he's near eye-level with the blue woman, staring at her through an orange visor. He's close to her, though, while Cortana isn't able to reach out and touch him just yet, the closeness belies just how close they might be - relationship wise. They stare at one another, Cortana "looking" into his eyes, and feels his staring back. He wants her to remember, she knows. He wants her to be able to remember him and everything that they went through, and while some of it is coming through, not all of it. There is still some holes.
But there is an obvious connection. He's the one that she's been looking for. The person that she didn't know that she was looking for. It's strange that thousands of years - probably - separate the last time they saw one another and now, and yet she was still looking for him. In her memory banks, his presence remained even if she couldn't remember him. He was there, yet he wasn't. It's odd. Something that she is going to have to ponder.
"Do you remember anything?" Anakin asks after a pregnant silence. Cortana slowly pulls her eyes away from John to look at Anakin. She considers his words for a moment, not sure what to say. She remembers bits a pieces - a lot - but the information is too jumbled for her to be able to accurate say what it is that she learned from them. She is going to need some time to really sift through the information and figure it all out.
Cortana blinks slowly, her data marked blue eyes lowering more and more until they close. She can feel information unlocking, but it's only in bits and pieces, nothing cohesive or clear. She knows John. She knows that she can trust him. That he has been by her side for a long time - Keep your head down! There is two of us in here now, remember? - and yet many of the specifics have been left in the depths of 'unknown' and 'hunches'. How to gain further access to such things alludes her once more.
A great tide...
Ahsoka's body twitches, a sequence of lights twinkle around her, a twirling blue and green strands of light flow around her. The threads stretch out for eternity. It connects to everyone and everything. It's... simple, yet somehow beautiful. There is great power in it. It may not be a blinking light, but there is something more brilliant about the strands than the light.
...is coming, and it will engulf the galaxy.
Every word that floated around her in the whisper voice that she can't explain, the strands of light shimmer and shine at each word. Almost as if it was reacting to the words. A ripple.
And devour everything.
Ahsoka's eyes open slowly. She pears through the light green water. Her large blue eyes flicker about, trying to get her bearings for a moment. She can see the clones walking about outside the bacta tank she's in. She reaches out and runs her fingers along the smooth surface of the glass around her. She closes her eyes again, taking in a survey of her injuries. Just about everything is completely healed - even her throat, but she has a bad headache.
She wiggles her fingers and her toes, jiggles her arms and legs and stretches her back and neck. Nothing is hurting her anymore - other than the headache, but compared to the amount of pain she was in last time she was awake, this is nothing - so she holds her hand out toward the lever outside the tank, using the Force to push it downward and flush out the bacta tank. No time to wait around for the doctors to clear her. She feels fine.
She remembers everything clearly. She managed to get away from those strange aliens before she got trapped in that room with the strange armored man. He managed to kill almost all of them - if Ahsoka recalls, she killed one of them in that room - before he came after her. He didn't stomp the life out of her, though. She feels better and is definitely on the Redeemer. Her Master... she remembers having heard him before she passed out. He had called out her name.
Yes! What happened after that? Surely if there was a fight, her master and the clones won, or she wouldn't be here.
The bacta flushes out the bottom, lowering Ahsoka to the platform in the tank. Once the bacta is all gone, the seals around the outside of the tank release and a hiss of air is let in, sending a chill through her body. Ahsoka shakes the feeling away as one of the medics stands by, waiting for her to duck beneath the lid of the glass and onto the floor, somehow managing to keep her balance on the slick floor. He helps her remove the tube from her face and sensors on her body, monitoring her vitals.
With the medic's help, Ahsoka walks across the room to the showers and quickly washes off the rest of the bacta still sticking to her. Once she's done, she heads to a separate room to change into her clothes, pausing to see Rex standing there, in his arms is her clothes with her belt and lightsaber on top and her boots in his other hand.
"Rex?" Ahsoka says, surprised. "You didn't have to bring me my things."
"You saved my life, Commander. I owe you at least this much," Rex says, holding her clothes out toward her.
Ahsoka tosses the towel she was using to dry herself and the white skin-tight medical body suit they had her in, and tosses it into the laundry bin. She takes her clothes and walks behind a curtain put in specifically for her, seeing as she was the only female on the ship. She quickly peels the white suit from her body, dropping it to the floor and quickly pulls on her clothes.
"We're friends, Rex, there isn't a need to feel for repayment. Just knowing that you're alright is enough for me." Ahsoka wiggles into her white leggings before walking out from behind the curtain and sits down on the nearby bench to put on her boots and gloves. She puts on her belt, straps her lightsaber to it, and puts her communicator on her arm before turning back to see Rex waiting for her.
"I appreciate that, Commander," Rex says. "Generals Skywalker and Kenobi would like to speak with you in the communications room."
"Okay," Ahsoka says, following after him. She's healed, other than her head. While she was changing, she didn't notice anything else out of place, until her eyes land on her right arm. Where she was stabbed by that weird tube thing. There was a nasty chalky orange color that spread out like some sort of spider web like scar. She reaches over and touches her arm, running her fingers up and down the skin, feeling that it's slightly rougher than the rest of her skin.
After a few moments of silence, Ahsoka, unable to keep her curiosity at bay any longer, asks, "What ended up happening with that big guy after I passed out. I know Master was there, I remember hearing him, and unless we all died together and are sharing our afterlife together on an exact replica of the Redeemer with it's crew, I'm assuming we didn't die."
Rex shakes his head, pulling her eyes away from the mark on her arm. "No, Commander, we're alive. That guy is here. In fact, if anything, he saved your life." He peers at her from the corner of his eye.
Ahsoka's somewhat surprised by that. "Did he?" She asks, perplexed by the prospect of being saved by that intimidating stranger. And he was trusted enough to be brought on board the Redeemer. He really must have saved her. That's not something that's very common now-a-days, but she's thankful for the help. She will definitely have to thank him.
"Yeah, we were real worried about you, Commander, he was a big guy leaning over you, we didn't know what happened." Rex looks forward, nodding to some of the clones that stop to salute to him.
"To be honest," Ahsoka says slowly, reaching up to touch her Padawan braid to make sure it's still there - it is, "I wasn't all that sure that I understood what happened either. There was a lot of confusion that lead up to that. Did he say anything about those aliens? About himself?"
"A bit," Rex says, hands folded behind his back. "He's not the talkative sort and while being awakened after thousands of years hasn't affected his ability to fight, walk or talk, he's having a bit of hard time adjusting to the time lapse. I didn't notice much, to be honest, but the Generals did. Probably something Force-wise, if I had to guess."
Ahsoka smiles thinly. "And has he gone to sleep, somewhere?"
Rex shakes his head. "Not as far as I know. He hasn't left the Communications Center where Cortana is."
"Cortana?" Ahsoka echoes. "Who's that?" Where had she heard that name before? It sounds familiar, but she can't seem to place it.
"Blue," Rex says. "Her name is Cortana."
Ahsoka's eyes bug out, turning to face her friend. "Her name is Cortana? She remembered! That's awesome!" She bounces up and down, forgetting her headache with renewed vigor of seeing her friend. "Come on, let's go, Rex!" She turns and runs down the hall toward the communications room, barely slowing down enough for the door to open before she's inside. "Blue! I mean, Cortana!"
The blue woman looks over her shoulder from where she's sitting on the center of the console, blue eyes wide with a smile spreading across her face as she gracefully glides to her feet. "Ahsoka! You're awake! That's great!"
Ahsoka crosses the room until she's right in front of the blue woman. "I heard you remembered your name! Cortana! What a pretty name!"
Cortana smiles gently, looking embarrassed. "Thank you. Yes, I do recall my name. Not at first, but I do now."
Settling down, Ahsoka smiles gently to the AI. "I'm so happy for you."
"Thank you, Ahsoka," Cortana says, smiling back just as gently.
Ahsoka catches a motion in the corner of her eye, and looks over to see the armored humanoid, shocked to see that he towered over her, somewhere between six and seven feet. He was in the corner of the room, probably sitting when Ahsoka came in, and was now standing as he pushed away from the wall. He was a beast of a man, definitely.
"Hello," Ahsoka says, tipping her head a bit. "I heard from Rex that you saved my life, and I vaguely remember you fighting off those aliens too before I sort of... well, threatened you." She shrugs, looking a bit meek. "Thank you for saving me."
The humanoid tilts his head to the side, as if he didn't understand. Ahsoka wondered if perhaps he couldn't understand her, when he finally speaks, "It's not a problem." His voice is low and coarse. And somehow familiar. "I'm glad that you're alright."
"Thank you," Ahsoka says. "I'm lucky that you were there, those aliens were... a doozy."
"The Covenant, yes," the humanoid says. "They are not foes to be taken lightly."
Ahsoka rubs the back of her head, looking over her shoulder to see Anakin and Obi-Wan stepping into the room behind Rex. She looks back over at the humanoid. "As I am starting to see. These... Covenant guys, are they friends of yours?"
He shakes his head. "No."
Silence.
"How do you feel?" Obi-Wan asks, looking over at the humanoid. "You have been through a lot in the short two days you've been with us."
Two days? It's only been two days? Ahsoka feels like it's been weeks since she got the biggest beat down of her life.
"I'll live," the humanoid says, his voice gravelly and low. Now that Ahsoka is listening to it, she has to wonder if he was sleeping. His voice sounds like he just woke up from a nap. Was he sleeping in his armor? Can he even live without it? Ahsoka doesn't even know what sort of species he is underneath that armor.
"Take it easy, Master Chief," Anakin says, crossing his arms over his chest, "you are amongst allies."
The armored man nods, "Yes, General Skywalker."
"You guys got chummy," Ahsoka says with a touch of humor.
"Master Chief here, saved your life," Obi-Wan says, making a gesture toward the green armored man. "Both against the Elites and again with that spider bite. He managed to remove the poison from your veins before it killed you. You owe him your life, Ahsoka."
"Oh," Ahsoka says, looking over at the humanoid - Master Chief? - with large blue eyes. "Right, thanks again. And I didn't realize that I was bitten by a spider." She blinks. "Oh!" She looks down at her arm, covering the scar with the palm of her left hand. "I was bitten by a giant spider?"
"In a manner of speaking," Anakin says.
Silence again.
They all settle into this heavy silence where they all look about the room, avoiding the eyes of each other, lost to their thoughts. It's not uncomfortable in any sense of the word, but it's odd that they would just stop talking. Especially with the amount of people that were in the room.
"By the way," Ahsoka says, looking over at the Master Chief, "I'm Ahsoka Tano." She smiles up at him and feels a gentleness flutter into the Force around the humanoid. That's when she realizes how powerful he is in it. He's a monster in the Force, almost as powerful as Obi-Wan. Not in skill, but in overall strength. He has no training in it. There is no refinery to it. But at least it's a good indicator of how he's feeling without having any access to his facial expressions.
In the Force, she can see an image of a child, and a gentleness around it. He sees her as a child - which perturbs her a bit, she's fifteen! But then she thinks about it. He probably comes from a long time ago, and doesn't know that she can defend herself and probably wants to protect her solely on some sort of instinctual thing rather than anything insulting or chauvinistic.
"So, you're Master Chief?" Ahsoka asks slowly, curious as the image fades into the Force once more for stoic emptiness.
He nods. "I am. Or Sierra One-One-Seven, if you need distinction."
Ahsoka looks him up and down, noting just how unique he is. She doesn't think there is going to be any need to distinguish him from others. She doubts she'll get them mixed up. "I... don't think that is necessary, Master Chief."
"Yes, ma'am," Master Chief says, offering a curt nod. A touch of bitterness filtering into the Force and an echo of a voice.
"Commander..." a clone's voice says, and an image of Ahsoka laying on the ground in front of them. Her face and body losing color as the dark veins work their way across her being. Then a flash of children, dying, in what could only be described as battle. A gargled, bloody mess of limbs and blood and sobs of pain - from the eyes of a child.
Ahsoka's head snaps in the direction of her masters, momentarily flaring the pain in her head, before she shoves it away, her eyes wide. They had to of seen that too. She couldn't have been the only one! And she wasn't. Anakin and Obi-Wan looked genuinely upset by this. They had seen it too.
At first, Ahsoka thought he was somehow jealous of her rank, and considering she was younger than him - probably - but she's definitely not getting that impression anymore. He's not jealous, he's angry. Bitter. He doesn't hate her rank, he hates that she's there. That she's on the battlefield. Not because she's a girl. Because she's a child. Because he was a child raised on the battlefield.
Ahsoka's starting to wonder how that scarred him.
"Ahsoka," Ahsoka says, looking back over at him. "Master Chief, please, just call me Ahsoka."
"I appreciate it, ma'am," Master Chief says, straightening his back, the bitterness disappearing along with the images into emptiness. "But that's not necessary."
"Before I'm a Commander, I'm a Jedi," Ahsoka says, wanting to somehow make her savior feel better. She's sympathetic to this pain that seems to be laced into any emotion he releases into the Force. "If you need to call me anything and can't do Ahsoka, then Padawan Tano or Padawan Ahsoka works too."
A touch of relief flickers into the Force before vanishing once more. "Is that alright?"
Ahsoka smiles a bit, offering a confident nod. "Yep. I give you permission." She then beams up at him. Master Chief considers for a moment before nodding, relaxing his stance a bit. Then Ahsoka looks over at Anakin and Obi-Wan. "So, what's the plan now."
"Well, you woke up in time," Anakin says, "once we leave hyperspace, we are going to get into contact with Council and explain the situation. Knight Secura arrived hours after we got you aboard the Redeemer and went to secure the planet and clean up. She'll probably add to the report later."
"Are we heading back to Coruscant?" Ahsoka asks.
"Yes."
"Why, exactly?" Ahsoka inquires.
"Because they need to see the Chief," Cortana says, speaking up for the firs time in a long time. Her arms cross over her chest as she closes her eyes for a moment, considering something. "And he needs to be seen by real doctors. As good as the medical staff is here, they aren't equipped to deal with his situation."
Ahsoka looks over at the blue woman. "What do you mean?"
"I... put safety measures on his suit during our time together," Cortana says, casting a slow look over at the Master Chief. "In his cryo sleep, they managed to lock up. I... did such a good job, I don't even know how to open them back up again. So, basically, parts of his system are locked down and I can't seem to unlock them." She mimics the action of running her hand through her hair but doesn't actually do it. Just.. goes through the motion.
Ahsoka stares at her. "Are you frustrated, Cortana?"
Cortana shakes her head. "No. I am unable to feel frustration. I just..." she hesitates. "I just need to keep trying, is all."
Master Chief turns to look at her, a spike of anger in the Force. An image of Cortana, staring up at him, looking too human. Her eyes are blown wide and her skin is a pale color. She looks different. She is shades of blue still, but looks so much more human. There is something between both of them, something that is garbled in the Force. She opens her mouth and speaks, "I'm not doing this for mankind!" Before the image fades away into his memory, replace by this faint bitter, forlorn feeling, that too fades after a moment.
Ahsoka frowns at that, also not all that pleased by her words, but the image of Cortana and her words in his mind... that was a memory of some sort. A hazy vision of the past. Ahsoka is intrigued by their relationship. They have spent a lot of time together. They forged a very strong connection to one another, she, and her masters she's sure, can all feel it. Even Rex, who has been silent the entire time, must have sensed it as well, just watching their interaction.
Master Chief has to be the person that Cortana was looking for. Ahsoka can just feel it. They have finally been reunited. Ahsoka couldn't be more happy for her friend.
"If anyone can do it," Obi-Wan says placating, holding his hand up to stop Ahsoka from speaking, "then I believe that you will be able to, Cortana. Have faith in yourself, as we do. Once we get to Coruscant, we will help the Master Chief however we can. Believe that."
"I do," Cortana says, smiling thinly. "Thank you, General Kenobi."
"Hello, Masters," Obi-Wan says a few hours later, offering a little bow while Anakin and Ahsoka flank him on both sides. Cortana is on the console next to the images of the Masters, offering a nod. "I'm sure you got my preliminary report?"
"Yes," Windu says, interlacing his fingers onto his lap. "And Knight Secura's. She gave a very detailed description of the unknown alien remains that were found planet-side, and the spider like creature that poisoned Padawan Tano. We are awaiting samples so that the healers can look over them. And I see that you are alright now, Padawan?"
Ahsoka nods. "Yes, Master Windu. I'm okay, now."
"That's good to hear," Master Plo says. Ahsoka smiles at him.
"Cortana," Obi-Wan says, looking over at the blue woman. "Would you please take it from here?"
Cortana nods. "Thank you, General Kenobi." She looks over at the Masters. "I would like to introduce to you, my friend, Spartan 02 Sierra One-One-Seven. The Master Chief." Master Chief steps closer, intrigued by the images of people. He studies it, curiously, while Cortana continues, "While most of my memories are still locked away, more has become clear to me."
"Have our undivided attention, Cortana, you do," Yoda says, stressing her new name to show that the change was not lost on him.
"Thank you, Master," Cortana says. "The ship that we were on - because both parts that we were both found on - were the same ship. It's called the Infinity, it's captain Thomas Lasky's ship. How we got there, or how the ship got into the state of disrepair that it was in, is lost on me. I believe that shortly after the ship was compromised - which is also something that is lost on me at the moment - we were both put into our slumber which lasted until the moment we were discovered.
"As for the aliens that were encountered on the Mid-Rim world Hershe'llt is one of the species that makes up the Covenant. They were deemed Elites by humans, but their species are Sangheli from the planet Sanghelios. I recall bit of data about the planet itself, but try as I may I cannot locate it any longer in Republic archives. Thousands of years has passed and the shift in the planetary rotation has moved the planet in such a way that I am unable to locate it without an accurate timetable of the amount of time has passed," Cortana says.
Silence. Everyone quietly digests this new bit of information. Ahsoka listens to the soft sound of her masters breathing and the light hum of the console working and heating up the room.
"Master Chief," Master Depa turns her attention over to the armored humanoid, "what can you tell us about what happened to you?"
The Chief doesn't respond right away. Without being able to see his eyes, it's hard to tell if he's paying attention or not. He's just got his mask pointed toward the masters, but whether he's staring or not is yet to be determined. If he is staring, then he's giving off a very thoughtful vibe, and if he isn't, then he's staring off into space.
"I have been in cryo sleep for a long time," Master Chief says, shifting ever so slightly. "I remember leaving Saghelios after the very brief war against the AI Copy and the Guardians, but once we were picked up by Captain Lasky... I don't recall."
"AI Copy?" Anakin asks. "What's that?"
"An AI that was tainted by power of the Forerunners. She then took control of the Guardians across the galaxy to subjugate humanity and bring... peace. Anything after that is hazy," Master Chief says slowly. There is hesitation in the Force, something he's holding back. In the Force, there is a hazy, hard to make out image. He has mixed feelings in regard to what he's somewhat seeing. It's hard for Ahsoka to be able to decipher any of that.
"What's an AI Copy?" Ahsoka asks, looking between Master Chief and Cortana. The latter of the two looks deep in thought, trying desperately to grasp onto something in her memory banks that seems to continue to allude her. Ahsoka feels pity for her. She hopes that everything becomes clear for her friend soon. Cortana has been trying her hardest to help them and be useful, but its hard when she's missing so much of herself.
"All I know is that she takes on the persona of an AI and is using it to wreak havoc across the galaxy in my time. What happened after we were picked up by the Infinity, I don't know. Although, ultimately, it crashed, I think." The Chief looks away, as if trying to recall something. Images of those like him, in armor similar to his own, flash into his mind, all of different colors. There is a feeling of kinship, and displacement. He doesn't know where they are.
Another bout of silence befalls them, both the Masters and those with Ahsoka fall silent. No one knowing what else to say. Each lost to their own thoughts, except for the Master Chief, his mind is painfully blank. He's forcing everything away for chilling detachment. He's swallowing into himself to escape having to feel. A defense mechanism from years of trauma, abuse and repression.
There is something about Cortana and the Master Chief that Ahsoka feels connected to. She's not sure if she's just imagining it or not, but it's hard to ignore. She's not sure why she feels this way, only that she does. Something about the Chief is familiar to her, but she doesn't know where, and the more she sees into his mind - unintentionally and it makes her feel a little bad that he's such a personal person, it seems, and he's giving so much away in the Force because he doesn't even know about it - the more curious she is about him.
And how they could all be connected.