The enemy of my enemy

*3 days earlier*

It wasn't the first time I had trouble sleeping and it wouldn't be the last. Of course I knew that it couldn't be true. My mother died when I was six. Not to mention I ended up dying and going to a whole new universe... so why? Why did I suddenly 'see' her and hear her voice? Was my brain torturing me? Trying to get me to want something I could never have? I ruled out the vision being a memory because she never asked me those questions... so what the hell was it? I sat up from the bed and looked over the room. I had gotten quite accustomed to this space which I now called home. It was basic, bare, and a bit of a mess due to the fact that my armor was scattered about, but that wasn't on my mind right now. I sat there in darkness, waiting for fatigue to drag me back to slumber... but it couldn't, not by itself. I lied down again and closed my eyes, I breathed in a normal pattern and tried to relax. Before I let myself drift one final thought came to my mind, a thought that I wasn't prepared for even though I was the one who conjured it.

'Mom... I miss you'

*2 days earlier*

When I woke up again the clock read 5 am. I decided that 6 hours was enough and began to put my armor back on. The hall was dimly lit as no one else was up. I opted to not disturb them and made my way out of the barracks. For the first time in a while I realized that I had no destination in mind. I could do morning PT like I used to with the ODSTs but then I thought of something I did need.

'If these SKELLS have taught me one thing is that I'm going to need heavy weapons sooner rather than later… I wonder if Alexa is up now.' I began to walk toward the SKELL hanger as that seemed like the most likely spot. The streets were mostly empty even though they were well lit. The three moons provided most of the light in the sky as I kept walking. I didn't bother to look at the moon this time, all it would do is remind of something I lost long ago. The main door was wide open but despite this it was mostly pitch black with the exception of a single dock that was illuminated in white light. As I approached, sparks began to fly from the lit area and I found who I was looking. Alexa's face was covered by a welding mask and was busy putting an armor plate back on the machine's leg. She then turned to me and put down her torch as she removed her mask. Her mocha face was covered in dirt, yet she had a beaming smile on her face.

"Hey Six! Didn't think anyone else was up this early, how are you?"

I decided to indulge her in small talk, but only once. "I'm fine Alexa, I had a feeling you would be up early to work, I was hoping you could make me another weapon."

"Sure, I'm game. What is it?" she asked, brimming with confidence. I pulled up the blue print and sent it to her. She received it immediately and he face lit up when she saw the weapon in question. "M41 Rocket launcher, you want a big gun huh? Well it may take a couple of days but I can get it done but you're gonna have to pay for this one."

"How much?"

"About 35,000 credits, which is pretty steep so-"

"Done" I transferred my acquired funds to her and she seemed shocked

"Damn… and they say I'm a workaholic, okay I'm gonna get started on this because something tells me you'll need this sooner rather than later."

I simply nodded and began to make my way back. The rays of this planet's sun began to peak over the horizon, giving the sky a faint red color. The return trip through the residential district went the same except there was one person who was out and about. It was a woman who had jet black hair and peach like skin. She took notice of me as I walked by and normally I would have paid her no mind but I gave her one quick glimpse and something strange caught my eye. I stopped and turned to face her. She had two different eye colors, one a crimson red while the other was a deep purple. She stared back at me in anticipation, like she was waiting for me to say something. In the end, she spoke first.

"Forgive me for staring but I've never seen you before." Her voice was soft and gentle… it reminded me of her.

"I'm new around here ma'am and I don't really come to this area often, I just pass through."

"Oh, well if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"

That question was asked of me hundreds of times and every time I gave the same answer… so why was I hesitant all of a sudden. I've lied all the time, that was part if being a headhunter/black ops agent but now I had a sudden urge to tell the truth… why? I realized that I still hadn't answered and sought to correct that.

"Six, Noble Six." She seemed confused but went with it, then she smiled. "I should get going my team is going to think I've gone solo again." I turned and began to walk but then stopped and turned back. "Forgive ma'am, I never got your name"

"Hope, Hope Alanzi"

*Present Day*

Alexa seemed to be in a good mood today as she spent 5 minutes going over the specks of the launcher she had built in just a couple of days. I was actually surprised that she managed to perfectly replicate the weapon despite not having the same tools my humanity did.

"Now unfortunately I've only made 4 rockets so if you want it now you'll have to make your shots count."

"I always do" she then handed me the weapon which I then put on my back holster. I thanked the energetic outfitter before making my way back through the residential district. My com device began to go off. I took one look at the caller and answered. "Go ahead colonel."

"Six, we have a new assignment, get over to the barracks, I'll explain when you get here"

"Copy that." I hung up and made my way to the others 'Looks like I'll be testing the rockets sooner rather than later.'

…

I looked over the footage again. "What exactly are we looking at?" I asked as I kept an eye on the multiple ships on screen.

"This probe picked up multiple SKEELS firing at one ship which then crashed in the area known as Oblivia, that's a desert east of primordia. I want you to look at the attacking SKEELS." Elma then pulled up two 3 images. The first was extremely familiar to the second while the 3rd was entirely different. "The first is that ganglion SKELL you encountered in Noctilum, the second looks eerily similar to the SKELLS in Oblivia, and we aren't sure what the 3rd ship is but we do know is that it was putting up a fight against the ganglion."

"I'm assuming it isn't one of our ships."

"No, it looks alien in nature but that doesn't really matter. If they are fighting the ganglion maybe they can help us."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend… I never believed that saying." Everything went quiet for a moment and Elma looked concerned. Lin them jumped in.

"The ganglion were attacking that ship, friend or not we should help, we could gain an ally if we do." As much as I would have loved to argue against that point I couldn't. Maybe it's because I didn't want to correct a 13 year old girl or perhaps deep down I knew that she was right.

"I'll remind you again that not every alien is hostile towards us, I don't know what makes you think that every alien is against us."

'You will never know' I said to myself. "So what do you want to do colonel?"

"We're gonna head out to Oblivia and figure out what's going on. If possible we'll assist whoever the ganglion were attacking."

"That means don't go shooting just anything." Lin added with a slight chuckle. I was annoyed at that comment but I didn't let it bother me as I retrieved my DMR. Elma and Lin then geared up themselves. Tatsu then packed himself.

…

The change in environment was rather staggering even to me. From grassy plains and rock formations to sand, sand, and more sand. There was also a massive canyon and I could even see a few floating islands which was a little surprising.

"Welcome to sandy bum canyon." Tatsu said proudly

"Is that what the No-pon call it? We didn't have any names for it so we called it Oblivia" Elma responded. While they conversed, Lin and I moved up toward a large dune which thankfully was stable enough to go prone on, it allowed me to pull out my rifle and begin scanning the area. Lin then pulled out her com device and did some scanning of her own. The wind was beginning to die down and viability began to improve.

"See anything?" Lin asked

"No, I don't even see any sign of that ship."

"Well the probe is a bit farther out… wait"

I turned toward Lin "What is it?"

"I'm picking up something, Elma come here." The colonel and Tatsu came running as I stood up. "Listen to this." Lin brought up audio and video from one of the other probes. The camera showed 3 squid type creatures who were barely 2 feet tall. Their high pitch speech indicated their problem.

"It's impossible, the three of us against three anti-air crews? We'll be dead meat for the grexes."

"This isn't about us anymore! Everyone on the ship is counting on us to deal with those guns."

"Sounds like they could use our help. Lets head up that way" Elma said as she walked by. As we made our way through the sand I noticed that the colonel was deep in thought as we were walking.

"Something on your mind ma'am?" she turned with a rather surprised look, like she didn't expect me to ask.

"Well… it's just odd that those creatures are speaking English."

"Those creatures are called ma-non, No-pon trade with them on occasion but they not native to Mira" Tatsu added.

"Right, so how do they know English."

"Perhaps your translator is set to English, I know mine is." I said. The UNSC usually skipped out on translators except when it came to black ops agents.

"But we don't have translators. Wait, Tatsu, what language are we speaking?" Elma asked

"Language? Why No-pon of course. Friends No-pon is very good too."

"So we hear him in our language but he hears us in his…" Elma went back into deep thought. At this point I stopped caring about that topic and moved to the task at hand.

"We can figure that out later colonel"

"Right lets go" we made our way through the dust and sand. I could see lin sweating profusely as she kept trudging along. I handed her the canteen I had stored in the suit.

"Where do you even find room for this?" she asked as she tried looking me over.

"You'd be surprised how many pockets this shell has." We then got close to the ma-non and I prepared my DMR. Elma didn't look to happy when I did that. "You do the talking but I'm not letting any of them out of my sight yet." She reluctantly nodded and approached the group of ma-non along with lin while I stayed back and kept my sights trained on them. They seemed to panic at first but them quickly calmed down when Tatsu jumped in. After a few minutes Elma walked up to me.

"Okay first thing I should say is that they don't like the ganglion anymore then we do and they'll be willing to help us if we can save their ship."

Of course I was suspicious at first, I had to be. 'Well I guess if they really are desperate enough to trust complete strangers then maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt.' I nodded signaling for her to go on.

"Their ship was damaged and forced to land inside the canyon. They've completed the repairs but they can't take off because the ganglion set up 3 anti-air guns around the canyon, we need to take them out so they can get to NLA."

"You gave humanity's location to them?"

"Look…" she looked tired and exasperated "I know it's risky but we need to work together, on our own humanity will fall." She had no idea how true those words rung to me.

"I'm sorry, what do you need me to do?"

She seemed stunned by my statement, like she was surprised by the complete 180 I pulled. "I need you to take the second gun south of here. Lin and I will deal with the first and we'll all regroup to take out the third." Her eyes shifted to the launcher on my back "Looks like you've got some heavy artillery, that should make your job easier." I nodded and she gave me a simple "good luck" before turning and heading off with Lin into the desert wastes.

[Play: Farthest outpost-Halo 3 ost]

3rd POV

Six drew his rifle and went off in the opposite direction of his team leader. It was then that he became completely focused on the task at hand. The heat and sand had no effect on him due to the MJOLNIR armor. The massive prints he left behind could have been considered a preview of what was to come. Despite the massive differences, Six couldn't help but make a comparison between Oblivia and Azod back on Reach. He tried to put out the thought out but it kept coming back like a wild fire. 'I've spent my life fighting aliens and yet here I am helping some.' The thought made his blood boil until he remembered 'No, I'm not just helping aliens, I'm assisting humanity at the same time.' Despite that thought, Six still didn't like what he was doing but he suppressed those emotions as he continued to trudge through the sand. Several grexes ran by without even paying the Spartan a glance almost like they knew what happened to the last group that tried to deal with him. Meanwhile the anti-air crew had no idea that certain doom was approaching them, they just kept their eyes on the sky until the crack of Six's DMR sent one of the crew to the dirt. The others turned and frantically scanned for the threat yet Six just kept nailing the stationary targets. Every squeeze of the trigger ended one of the ganglion and before the clip was even half empty, the crew were all staining the sand with their purple blood which reminded Six of the Elites he used to fight. He smirked under the helmet 'they weren't nearly as hard as elites though' he pulled out the M41 and took aim at the spherical AA gun. One rocket knocked the armor clean off and exposed the power core. The super soldier decided to conserve the second rocket and unloaded the rest of his DMR clip into the glowing core, which caused it to go haywire and explode, sending the gun plummeting into the canyon. Another explosion followed across the canyon, signaling that Elma and Lin had dealt with the second gun.

"Alright target one is down, Six?"

"Gun two is down colonel."

"Good, one to go."

"Race you there Six!" lin called over the com.

'A race huh?' Six took off toward the final target. The sand started flying upward into the air as the wind picked up again. The dust and dirt was enough to obscure the blue warrior as he approached his next target. The brief dust storm made the crew easy pickings, especially when lin started unloading her gauss cannon and Elma cut down any others. She then placed a pack of explosives on the gun and blew it sky high. The group didn't celebrate long as more explosions occurred in the distance. They took off toward the scene.

The group of ma-non were surrounded by three SKELL's that threatened to end them if they did not join the ganglion. Six was the first to arrive and immediately fired the remaining shot in his first clip of rocket ammo. The rocket contacted the 'face' of the machine before the explosion cause some of the armor to be blown clean off. Six then sprinted toward the fallen SKELL while the other two were attacked by lin and Elma. Six ran up onto the metallic back of the beast as it stood up. The blue warrior began to throw punches to the armor, causing it to cave in and spark as he began to hit vital parts. After enough haymakers, the cockpit was exposed and the pilot was in total shock when he was pulled out of their vehicle and smashed against the outer hull, drawing blood. Six then threw the pilot into the canyon trench, never to be seen again. Six them reloaded the rocket launcher, only to realize that it wasn't necessary as Lin had disabled one of the SKELLS while Elma had slid under of the machines, leaving an explosive present which then destroyed the enemy SKELL.

Six POV

The dust had begun to settle down and Elma began to gather the ma-non which had scattered. I double checked the final SKELL, just to be sure, but the moment I got close my head thumped with pain. My eyes had gone dark again and a familiar green flash began to replace my normal eyesight. The light took a the faint shape of a ponytailed women.

You became the one thing I never wanted you to turn into. For that, I'm sorry. One day I'll make it up to you.

The vision ended and the pain was gone. I didn't have time to think after it was over as I was sent flying a few feet and the warning alarm was going off. The SKELL had just blasted me. Red, that's all I saw was red as I pulled out the launcher and fired both rockets in quick succession. The impact sent the mech flying in a blaze to the bottom of the canyon. My wolf instincts had taken over for a brief moment. Lin came running up.

"Six, you okay?!"she looked to be panicked and even a tear made itself visible.

"Why are you crying Lin?" she stopped and did something I wasn't expecting, she hugged me. At least, she tried to, her arms couldn't reach around the armor completely.

"You took a SKELL laser at point blank range, I thought…" the words died on her lips and she just tried to suck in air. Elma walked up and put a hand on lin and I. I followed her gaze to my chest where the armor was freshly scared. There was a glowing burn mark where the blast hit me yet it did its job as my HUD showed that I had taken no health damage. I wiped off the ash and found that part of the blue paint had been burned off, revealing the steel colored titanium.

"Six…" Elma's voice was the softest I've ever heard. "Are you hurt?"

"No, the blast only broke the shield" as I said that the orange glow of the shield was restored as it finally recharged. "I'm fine ma'am."

"It happened again didn't it?"

"Come again?"

"You just stopped and clinched your head before you got shot. You also seem a little shocked and in thought, this is just like what happened in the cave, isn't it?"

I knew there was no use lying "Yes, it did happen again. Can I ask you a question ma'am?"

"Go ahead"

"Have you ever wanted something so bad but know that you can never have it?" she said nothing. How could anyone after that? 'What am I supposed to say? That I feel like I'm having visions of my mother?... fuck it' "I think I'm having visions."

Elma then asked that question "Visions of what?"

"My mother" not a word was said after that, the only sound being the wind that continued to blow dirt around. We just walked back with the ma-non… or at least we tried. Another headache hit me, worse then last time and the flickering lady came back.

Flesh wounds heal but the scars of losing family never leave

The vision didn't end and I bit my lip to numb the pain, it only made me taste blood.

I carry your same scars, I know what it's like to think of yourself self as nothing but a weapon, because I felt the same.

My vision blacked out completely and I felt myself collapse.

*2 hours later*

My eyes felt heavy as I began to hear two voices, one clearly belonging to Elma.

"All I want to know is if he's going to be okay."

"And all I can tell you is that he's okay right now and perhaps his collapse was caused by dehydration."

"You don't believe me?"

"It's hard to believe Elma, I'm a doctor not a psychiatrist."

I sat up slowly and opened my eyes reveling the two women. Elma then crouched to my level. "How are you holding up?"

I took off my helmet and looked her in the eye "I've gone through much worse then simple headaches Elma."

"Six!" Lin came running in from the door. Her face seemed stained from tears. "Are you okay? Do you need water? Is there anything-"

"Lin stop"

"We've lost enough, don't you add yourself to that list!" she all but screamed through her tears. I stood up and grabbed her by the shoulders and I'm not sure what came over me but I took a page out of the book of an old psycho teammate.

"Hey! Straighten up soldier!" lin was surprised and Elma looked a little shocked. Lin's lips were still quivering but her crying had stopped. "Stiffen up that upper lip! What are you crying for? You got me." 'The hell do I mean by that?' Lin started to breath normally as I pated her shoulder. "I'm okay Lin, you have to trust me on that." She took one last deep breath and nodded before smiling.

"Glad to have you back Six." I rubbed her head a little which wasn't something I really did.

"Thanks Lin" I turned to Elma and the doctor "Sorry for being a burden doc"

"You're okay lieutenant, now drink this." She handed me a bottle of water which I took with care and drank almost instantly. "Now I'm no psyche expert but if these visions continue then you need to go see a mediator."

"I understand"

"Good, colonel he's all yours." With that she left me with lin and Elma.

"So how do you get me here without taking off my armor?"

"We called for VTOL help, even then we had to drag you into the cargo bay. How do you even get around with how heavy that armor is?" Lin asked.

I crouched down and showed her the neural implant in the back of my neck. "My brain is connected to the suit. To keep it simple, I don't move the armor, the armor moves with me."

"Wow!" Lin's childlike smile returned which made me relax a bit. I stood up and Elma led us back to the residential district. The group of ma-non then took notice of me.

"Are you okay? You took a nasty hit."

'An alien asking about a Spartan's well being, don't hear that everyday' "I'll be fine, the blast didn't cause any real damage, it just broke through the shield. I'm fine."

"Thank goodness, you really saved our tails back there, it'd be a shame if we couldn't repay humanity for what you did." One said before the director general stepped in.

"The ma-non have agreed to work with us from now on. As a result they will now call NLA home as well, do you have any objections to that lieutenant?"

"No sir" a few days ago I would have had a problem, but as the old saying has been proven true 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'

AN: Do you have any idea how long this took? Too long.