The Chief rematerialized back on the walkway, which seemed to float over the black abyss below: the Control Room. He saw the replica of Halo which arched above, the globe that floated at the center of the walkway, and the control panel where he had last seen Cortana. Was she still here?

He then saw his motion tracker pined a yellow friendly directly behind him. Turning around, he saw a welcomed familiar face.

343 Guilty Spark was still talking to him before he noticed the extra human in the room. "...which means that any organism of sufficient mass and cognitive capability is a potential vector and...creation?" The Monitor said in surprise to see Ruby.

"Chief!? You're here!" Ruby said excitedly before rushing up to give him a hug but stopped short at the sight of all the nasty green blood on him. "Ewww. After we finish this mission, you are so going to have clean your armor," she pointed.

The Master Chief felt relieved that Ruby was alright. He wouldn't admit it, but he was glad to have her company again. "Good to see you made out of the swamp, Ruby."

"I also see you made a new friend," Ruby said, looking at the Monitor. She was trying to be her usual self as her part of Cortana's plan.

Master Chief looks at her. "Ruby, this is 343 Guilty Spark."

The Monitor floated up to Ruby. "A pleasure to meet you." The Monitor said very politely to her.

"Nice to meet you too," Ruby replied, trying to be oblivious of Guilty Spark and that this is the first time she heard of him, and she was really convincing.

"This is splendid! It is good to be talking to a creation, it has been so long since I've seen one of your kind." Guilty Spark said.

That confused Ruby, Creation? What did this robot mean by that? Ruby was sure she was never built and was, in fact, born. She was not a machine and felt her squishy guts. The Huntress thought really hard of what did it mean by this.

As the two talked, the Master Chief looked back at the Control Panel and wounder about the whereabouts of a specific AI.

343 Guilty Spark hovered above his head. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing."

"Splendid. Shall we?"

The Spartan made his way forward. Ruby following behind them, she was tempted still to ask the Monitor why he called her a Created. It was something that she just couldn't put her mind through.

343 Guilty Spark hovered above the control panel and looked down on the humans who stood in front of him.

instructed Chief then. "Unfortunately, my usefulness to this particular endeavor has come to an end. Protocol does not allow units with my classification to perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core."

The Monitor zipped around to hover at the Master Chief's side. "That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimer."

"Why does he call you that and me a Created?" Ruby whispers to the Master Chief. The Spartan shrugged his shoulders at girls' questions.

Master Chief accepted the Index and looked at the panel in front of him. Ruby watched as he puts it into a slot on the console. Lights and holograms appear before them, and an electronic groan was heard. 343 Guilty Spark was confused now that was not supposed to happen. "Odd. That wasn't supposed to happen."

It was at this moment when Cortana reappeared as she suddenly towered over the panel, looking pissed.

"Oh, really!?" she said as she gestured, and the Monitor fell out of the air, hitting the platform with a clank. Meanwhile, Ruby took a step back and watched it all unfold. She felt a little bad for tricking Spark like this, but it was necessary.

The Spartan looked up at her. "Cortana-"

Cortana stood with her hands in her hips with an angry look as she spoke. "I've spent the last 12 hours cooped up in here, watching you toady about, helping that thing get set to slit our throats!"

Chief spoke then, trying to calm Cortana down. "Hold on now. He's a friend."

Cortana brought a hand up to her mouth in mock surprise. "Oh! I didn't realize. He's your pal, is he? Your chum?" Her tone then became angry." Do you have any idea that that bastard almost made you do?!"

"Yes," Chief replied patiently. "Activate Halo's defenses and destroy the Flood, which is why we brought the Index to the Control Center."

Ruby watched Cortana plucked the Index out of its slot and held it out in front of them, "You mean this?"

Seeing the UNSC AI have it Index seemed to reanimate The Monitor and was a little angry. "A construct in the Core? That is absolutely unacceptable!"

Cortana's eyes glowed as she bent forward, her mouth curled into a half sneer, "Sod off!"

343 Guilty Spark darted higher. "What impertinence! I shall purge you at once!"

"Don't you dare try anything you...Floating Robot thing!" Ruby said, aiming her sniper at it, friendly or not, no one threatens her friends.

Cortana glared at the robot. "You sure that's a good idea?" Cortana inquired before making the Index disappear into her hand. Ruby noticed that more data seemed to scroll on her surface.

343 Guilty Spark was getting more than angry right now as his eye turned red for a moment. It almost scared Ruby as she could tell this thing was pissed off far more than ever. "How... how... how dare you?! I'll-"

Cortana was not intimidated in the slightest. "Do what? I have the Index! You can just float and sputter!"

"Enough!" The Chief brings both hands up in the middle of them as if to stop a fight, then turns back to face Cortana he will try to reason with Cortana and Ruby. "The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defenses, we can wipe them out."

"Chief...halo is very dangerous," Ruby pleaded.

Chief soon looks at her and then Cortana.

Cortana already explained it to Ruby, so she'll explain it to Chief. "You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible! The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do. Wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me?" Cortana stated before pointing at 343 Guilty Spark. "Ask him!"

Chief hold over his MA5B tightens before turning to face the Monitor. "Is it true?"

343 Guilty Spark pauses as everyone in the room looks at him. Cortana glare and Ruby having a look that tells him she's not sure what she thinks of him he could not perceive what Chief reaction is because of his helmet.

"More or less," Spark said in a direct manner, contrasting to his previous tone of voice. "Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light-years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood." The machine then looks at the humans. "But you already knew that... I mean, how couldn't you?"

"What!? We didn't know that at all!" Ruby shouted to the machine.

Cortana glared at the little robot. "Left out that little detail, did he?"

"We followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter," Spark said as if trying to justify that what they've done means that they have to follow through to the end with this evil deed. "You were with me each step of the way, as we managed the process."

"Chief," Cortana interrupted, "I'm picking up movement—"

As Ruby and Chief hear that, Ruby's radio went off. "Rose! The Covenant are back, do you have Cortona? is the Chief with you?!" The Corporal said over the sound of gunfire.

Super Soldier and Huntress got their weapons ready for whatever the Monitor was sending after them.

"Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?" 343 Guilty Spark droned on.

"We need to go," Cortana insisted. "Right now!"

A flock of Sentinels floated out from under the bridge and behind 343 Guilty Spark. Their beam weapons aimed menacingly on the Chief and Ruby.

"So...now the nice Robots are against us now?" Ruby whispered as she aims at the nearest sentinel.

"Last time, you asked me if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."

John reached behind him, retrieved Cortana from the console, and put her chip into his helmet.

343 Guilty Spark: "There is no choice. We must activate the ring."

"Get. Us. Out. Of. Here," Cortana said through the radio.

"There is no other way." The Monitor said almost with sympathy in his voice as he turns to Chief." If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me, or I will be forced to take her from you."

The Spartan looked up at Spark, and the machines arrayed in the air behind him. His assault weapon came up, ready to fire. "That's not going to happen."

343 Guilty Spark looks down for a second and sighs then almost sadly. "So be it. He looks to the Aggressors and gives them the order." Save his head dispose of the rest and the creation."

343 Guilty Spark teleports away then.

Ruby and the Chief slid to the side as several beams of heat burned through the air where they stood a moment ago. Ruby-red energy beams sizzled, and the smell of ozone filled the air as the Sentinels tried to circle the two humans. Chief readies his weapon along with Ruby as the sentinels closed in at the duo to get Cortana. Ruby fired her sniper rifle at one sentinel. The high-velocity round slammed into the Sentinels shields, overloading them in the process. A second shot finishing the robot off. The Spartan fired half the mag of his Assault Rifle at another Sentinel, managing to cause it to go in flames and crash to the platform.

Ruby focused more on the Sentinels trying to circle them while the Master Chief attempted to get the ones charging at them.

Between the Super Soldier and the Huntress, two dealt with them quickly. With only Chief getting hit mostly but his shields recharged soon after.

"Well... that could have gone better, you OK, Chief?" Ruby asked the spartan.

"I'm fine, Cortana?" The spartan replied.

"No problem with me," Cortana chirped, now no longer mad.

Now that he thought about it, she should have told Chief what Halo was before she started panicking and yelling at him before leaving to find Keys. Much of this stuff could have been avoided if she took five minutes to explain the situation.

Chief pushed those thoughts to the side. "Let's get out of here."

"There is just one thing I don't understand," Ruby says as the three walked.

"What's that?" Cortana asked through the speakers of Chief's armor.

"What did the Monitor mean by 'creation?' He called me that, and I'm wondering why. I'm pretty sure I was born and not built or anything. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would notice if I had an extension cord or plugin slot in me," Ruby said.

"I'm not sure really," Chief says a little confused as well. "I know why he called me Reclaimer, but why he called you a creation that's unknown to me."

"I think I might know. I was inside Halo's systems for a while and found lots of interesting stuff in Halo's data banks." Cortana says having an idea why the Monitor called her creation.

Ruby looks at Chief then. "Really? Can you tell me then?"

Cortana wanted to tell her, but they had other business that needs to be done. "We'll talk on that later, right now, we have bigger problems that need to be dealt with. We can't let the Monitor activate Halo. We have to stop him -we have to destroy Halo."

Chief heard Ruby gasp at this, but he ignored it, taking time to flex his stiff joints all across his body. "And how do we do that?"

"Have you seen how big this place is?" Ruby added in. "How are we supposed to that?"

Cortana was not surprised when Ruby asked this. "Let me continue: According to my analysis of the available data, I believe the best course of action is somewhat... risky."

Naturally/When hasn't been. Chief and Ruby thought together.

"An explosion of sufficient size will help destabilize the ring and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a large scale, however. A starship's fusion reactors going critical would do the job."

"But where are you going to find one of those?" Ruby asked. "I guess we could use one of the Covenant's ships, but I don't think they will like that."

"I agree, which is why I'm going to find out where the Pillar of Autumn went down. If the ship's fusion reactors are still relatively intact, we can use them to destroy Halo." Cortona finished.

"Is that all?" The Chief asked dryly. "Sounds like a walk in the park, by the way, it's nice to have you back."

"OK, then that will do...But what about the other UNSC forces on the ring? Will they make it out?" Ruby asked, concerned for the men that were stranded with them on Halo.

Cortana was silent, but Chief spoke. "Ruby...there's a chance that not all of us are going to make it," Chief answered as he begins to program the penal to open the door. "If we don't do this, the Flood will leave the ring once it gains enough intelligence to fly ships. Millions will die, and if the Monitor activates Halo, all life will die. Ruby, this is one of the harshest parts of war sometimes, you will half to make hard choices some that will haunt you forever."

As Chief said that Ruby looks down, deep in thought she let's out a sigh. She then wondered what the Marines that came with her will say about this. Along with that wondered why she feels like she saw this in a videogame before with someone making a hard choice with undead threat to save billions.

But as the door opened, she realized she did not half to worry about the Marines. As she spotted the burnt remains of five Marines on the other side, dead with the ground littered with shell casings. What was also there were covenant forces alive and dead with Sentinels overhead killing each other. That was when she even saw an Elite Ultra leading the Covenant troops.

Ruby clenched her sniper hard and gritted her teeth. She had enough of people dying around her. Quickly aiming and firing a shot, she hit an Elite minor that had its shields down, killing him.

That shot got most of there attention as the Ultra as it shot down another Sentinel. He looked and spotted more humans. One was the demon, and the other was the human girl in red. He remembers this one on from the Truth and Reconciliation, the one his Zealot superior fought. He believed she was dead, but the scar on her face said otherwise.

The Ultra roared commands in his native language, commanding them to take aim at the new threat. He brought his duel plasma rifles out and fired along with his other troops.

Chief handled the covenant forces and sentinels. Ruby runs at the Ultra high speed and tackles him, busting him upside the head with the simpers butt end. Ruby had fortunately hit with enough force to take out the Ultra's shields. An impressive feat by any means. Feeling a bit overconfident, she then tries to shoot him in the face with her sniper. But, the elite quickly activated one of his energy daggers in his wrist and sliced half the human sniper in half, making it useless.

"Come on!? You kidding me?! This is the third weapon I lost in three days!" Ruby yells as the Ultra kicks her off.

The Ultra gets back up and runs at Ruby with his energy dagger raised with the intent to stab her. Ruby turned into rose petals to avoid the attack, surprising the Ultra like most Elites as they not used to a trick like that.

Ultra looked around before his eyes went wide as something sharp and hot cut through him. He looks behind him to see Ruby wilding an energy sword with a smirk on her face.

"I took this off ya before you kicked me off you when you were distracted. Hope you won't mind if I keep this? After all, you guys took away my sweetheart and two sniper rifles, so I think that's fair." Ruby says as she pulls the energy sword put of the Ultra, Killing the last of the Zealot's guard that gave her her scar. The last of the Ultra's minions soon falls down dead by the Spartan and Huntress as they were leaderless.

Ruby puts away her new sword and walks over to the dead Marines. Sad thoughts fill her head at the sudden loss of the men she and Chief rescued not so long ago.

"Good job Ruby." Chief walks over to the teen. She looks at him and nods. He then looks at the dean Marines. "May they rest in peace." He says he and Ruby collected their dog tags and ammo. With the loss of another sniper rifle. Ruby recovered one of the dead Marines shotguns for her own use. Seeing the results against the Flood earlier, she may need its power soon.

They took what they needed and left for the big doors. Chief pressed the button for the door controls. Stepping back, they watched as the door's mechanisms groaned and faltered for a moment before the door opened to reveal the snow valley and the exterior of the pyramid they were inside.

A couple of Jackals were posted at the big door and were quickly dispatched by the 8-gage shells of Ruby and Chief's shotguns. As they got out, Cortana decided to update them on her plan.

"I haven't located the crash site yet. We need to buy some time, in case the Monitor or his Sentinels find a way to activate Halo's final weapon, without the Index. The machinery in these canyons are Halo's primary firing mechanisms. They consist of three phase pulse generators that amplify Halo's signal and allow it to fire deep into space. The power levels are enormous. I can't even begin to calculate the pulse's range. So, if we damage or destroy these generators, the Monitor will need to repair them before Halo can be used. That should buy us some time. I'm marking the location of the nearest pulse generator with a nav point. We need to move in and neutralize the device."

"OK then, let's do this!" Ruby said a little loudly. Then ducks in time before a needle rifle needle hits her in the head. Looking down the pyramid wall, they see more Covenant forces coming up, and they spotted a Wraith aiming its gun up at them from the bottom of the structure. "Oh, boy."

"Don't worry." Chief began. "We can handle this."

With that, the two quickly rushed forward into the fight. There was little time for plans as they were now on a race against the clock. They could only hope to stall the Monitor as long as possible and fallow along with Cortana's plan.

Note: well, here's the next chapter I like to thank Helljumper206 for helping me edit.

So what you all think?