Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Halo Reach. All rights go to Rooster Teeth and 343i/Bungie

"This is the Pillar of Autumn, we're away," The voice of Captain Keyes echoed over the comm. suit of the Mjolnir armour, "The package is with us."

Noble six watched as the final ship left on the planet Reach escaped through the clouds, the supporting thrusters on its hull falling to the ground. Humanity's final defensive bastion against the Covenant had taken 38 days, 14 hours and 27 minutes to fall to their relentless genocidal campaign.

The spartan withdrew the DMR sitting on her back and settled the rifle in her hands. The warrior letting out a soft sigh, as her shoulders slumping forwards. Glancing back over her shoulder, the barrel of the MAC at the shipbreaking yards entered her vision.

Below her positioning on the small platform Covenant forces roared, squeaked and chattered, challenging the Spartan. She responded with a singular, blindly fired round to a plasma grenade belted on an Unggoy. The resulting explosion set off the other grenades on four other Covenant, wiping out more than half of the squad approaching her with dumb luck alone. With the elites stumbling and struggling to retain their bearings, Noble Six took stock of her situation: Two magazines for her DMR in total, the reserve magazine at half capacity at best. Her magnum was also low, with its final clip already inside the weapon. She had no explosives. And she had her knives. She always had her knives.

All in all, it wasn't anything the Spartan hadn't faced down before.

With her DMR braced against her shoulder, she squared its sights on an Elite General. Depressing the trigger in quick succession, the spartan unloaded six rounds into the elite, destroying its shields. The Spartan rolled to the side, dodging a return shot from its fuel rod and silenced it with another round through its shieldless head. She redirected her fire, downing the remaining two grunts with a headshot. The last member of Noble on Reach hopped off the platform, her DMR barking with each squeeze of its trigger.

As Six landed in a crouch as the shields of the Sangheili minor popped before it fell with a ragged hole through the neck. The spartan scowled as she loaded in the last magazine. Half had been optimistic. Three rounds were in the magazine, all of which bounced off the final enemy's - an Elite Field Marshal - shields. Six's eyes narrowed as she swapped to her pistol and rose to her feet. She began closing the distance, firing her magnum with each step, unnerved by the now charging Field Marshall. The beast swiped at the Spartan with its energy sword, to which she dodged with a swift combat roll to the side. The weapon passed inches above her right shoulder and her shields flared in response to the heat of the blade.

She turned, only for the Sangheili Field Marshal to produce the handle for a second energy sword, it's own blade still active at its side. In its clawed hand, it spun the energy sword as its eyes floated over Noble Six's ashen purple armour. When its eyes finally returned to the Spartan's visor, he tossed the energy weapon towards her. Surprised, the spartan fumbled momentarily with the given weapon. The empty magnum dropped to the ground.

Looking back to the Field Marshal, whose own energy sword was reactivated and had settled into its stance. Tightening her grip, the hiss of the energy sword's twin blades filled her helmet's audio receptors. Six slid her right foot back a step along the charred ground, the twin bluish purple blades entering her field of vision.

The two warriors charged each other, energy swords colliding as the deadly duel began. Glancing blows were traded, each set of armour receiving shallow slashes or burn marks once shielding failed. The elite got lucky, however, and delivered a slash to the Spartan's helmet. Dodging a second lethal swing, Six moved several steps back, giving her helmet a smack. The elite, surprisingly and confusingly, was waiting on her. With a hiss, the helmet was discarded, allowing the airborne ash to fall into the Spartan's stained hair. Turning back to the elite, the spartan reactivated the energy sword in her grasp.

They clashed again, the blades intertwined as each tried to edge out an advantage. The superior height of the Sangheili was matched by Six's brute strength and force of will. The two were separated by inches. The Elite's mandibles twitched and its eyes widened in recognition. After a few tense seconds, the two retreated several feet from each other.

"Impressive… demon." The elite garbled out. Six narrowed her eyes as the elite deactivated its energy sword. "You…have a familiar style…" He mused, as if to himself.

"Leave, before I change my mind." The Spartan hissed through grinding teeth.

It turned away. Six deactivated the weapon in her hand and tossed it back to the Field Marshal. She grabbed her helmet and put the damaged piece of equipment back on her head. Why did it spare her? And why did she give the weapon back? Six turned her attention to where the MAC gun was located. She didn't quite grasp why she, a Lone Wolf, a Hyper-Lethal rated Lone Wolf, let the Field Marshal walk away alive, nor why it let her go in return. And without any extra thought, she wouldn't.

When she looked back, the Field Marshal was gone. Rolling her neck, the Lone Wolf picked up her discarded magnum and made her way up the hill towards the facility. Blood covered the ground, and the stench of burning flesh lingered in the ashen air as she entered the facility and proceeded to the lowest level.

After navigating the twisting and descending hallways, Six replenished her ammunition in an armoury, as well as her lost magnum and stocked up with MREs. With her supplies sorted, the Spartan continued on deeper. Kicking open the heavy metal door with the 'Restricted Access' crap on the door face, the Lone Wolf's gaze fell upon the generator and chemicals for the MAC several hundred feet above her. She hefted a trio of demolition charges the local marines had been kind enough to leave for her.

Noble Six looked back in the direction of Aszod. The Covenant were glassing it now. Raising her Tactical Computer to her visor, she pressed a virtual red button. Not a second later, the ground rumbled.

The charges had done their job. The chemicals, coolant and the fusion generator produced a mushroom cloud that would have the Covenant drawn for hundreds of kilometres to the scene. The toxic chemicals within the cloud and sequential five-kilometre radius wouldn't stay long, but it would be around long enough to cause the Covenant issues, as well as lives.

With a small smirk, the Spartan turned and continued on her way, pointed towards the ruins of Sword base. Covenant ships of all sizes screamed overhead, ignoring the lone Spartan as they went towards the toxic kill zone that had been created by Six at Aszod. Her motion detector picked up something moving ahead, too slow to be any flight-capable vehicle kicked the Spartan into a combat mindset again. Her DMR snapped up as she proceeded slowly forward.

The explosions that continued in Aszod rippled like earthquake tremors, weakening the ground that covered the secret beneath the Spartan's feet. The ground crumbled and sent the half-ton soldier colliding with a metal floor with an equal amount of dirt and stone. Shaking her head, Noble Six climbed back to her feet and began wiping the dirt and smaller stones from parts of her armour. After a moment more she collected her rifle and continued on, helmet camera recording all visuals Six came across. The smooth but aged metal that made up the walls were turning a rustic brown, converging on a doorway a couple hundred yards ahead of her. Six compared it to the interior of the ONI facilities she'd had the misfortune of ever setting foot into during her military career, just not as white, clean, or as ominous.

The Spartan swept her rifle from side to side as she passed through the doorway into a circular room. Just like the hallway she arrived from, the walls were a rustic brown and reached up into a domed ceiling. Inactive and crumbling consoles lay about the room in a disorganized fashion, with no familiar layout present. Her rifle still elevated, she took several tentative steps into the room, before something clicked beneath her foot.

"Aw hell…"

Ahead of her, a panel lit up, and more rusted metal rose, a vague blue hue overtaking the floating metal. She kept sweeping her DMR from side to side, confirming that no hostiles were present. The External Uplink on her helmet flashed red as it began collecting readings around the spartan, replacing the single-direction helmet camera. Like a switch had been flipped, the walls lit up with lines of blue and the floating object glowed brighter. Six squinted her eyes behind her polarised visor, turning her head away while raising a hand in front of it.

"Oh! A Reclaimer, at last!" A high pitched voice sounded throughout the room as the light died down, snapping the spartan from her momentary distraction. A polished silver sphere appeared, glowing a vibrant blue from its sides and from its 'eye' in the middle met the muzzle of Six's marksman rifle, separated by mere inches.

"Welcome reclaimer! I am 037 Vengeance Solitude, Monitor of this facility." The Spartan gave the sphere a quizzical look from behind her helmet.

"Are you a Smart AI?" Six asked, her weapon twitching from the force of her grip. 037 bounced around in place for a moment.

"If that is what you wish to call us, Reclaimer, yes. But first, we must seal this facility. Protocol 56 is clear: Only Reclaimers may be allowed access this facility." 037's solitary blue eye flashed brighter for a moment, and the door behind the Spartan closed with a loud thump.

"You may remove your foot from the sensor plate, Reclaimer. It poses no threat." Solitude stated, moving from side to side in front of the Spartan, the rifle following its every move.

"What's the plate for?" Keeping her foot firmly planted, Noble Six asked with a glance around the room from behind her black visor, her head moving from side to side slightly.

"It recognizes Reclaimers as they existed during the time of the forerunners. Over 100,000 years ago. This facility contains 1,024,000,000 gigabytes of information acquired over 100,000 years ago along with 351,296,000 gigabytes accumulated from other, defunct facilities. Included are the necessary teleportation facilities to move between marked zones." Solitude replied, moving around the raised DMR to the Spartan's face.

"So, the plate isn't an explosive big enough to destroy the facility - rather a DNA scanner?" Six asked, slowly stepping back from the monitor, and the plate. She kept the rifle raised. "And you have a little over 1.3 billion gigabytes of data, as well as instant transport?"

With the floating lightbulb in front of her, she decided on dropping how it could scan through her armour.

"Correct, Reclaimer. Although in your current state, you would not survive the transportation of the portal, and 875,296,000 gigabytes stored in this facility is regarded as junk data. And as of two minutes, seventeen seconds and four-hundred and fifty-one milliseconds ago, Protocol three-six-eleven-nine is in effect." Solitude answered, floating towards an exit of the spacious room.

The Spartan narrowed her eyes and shook her head, following the AI down one of the hallways of the facility. She knew she had a few major injuries at best. 037 entered a hallway, filled with doors to rooms filled with machines and what Six could only assume was medical equipment.

"What is Protocol 36119?" Six asked.

"Protocol 36119 activates in response to a Reclaimer accessing this facility. It dictates I must do everything within my power to assist and protect. This protocol acts in conjunction with Protocol five-six." Solitude answered.

"Five-six sounds moot with 36119," Six mentioned offhandedly. Solitude didn't seem to hear as he continued talking.

"Over the last one-hundred-thousand years, my capacity to assist has unfortunately dwindled. Materials required to support a Reclaimer such as yourself have had to be used in the maintenance of this facility. There are the barest of materials to upgrade your arsenal." 037 turned around towards Six but kept moving further down the hall.

Finally, the unusual pair reached a room, much bigger than the ones Six had gotten a glimpse of on their way, and with far more equipment.

"Your combat skin - a stage 1.5 combat skin by Forerunner records - will be dismantled, repaired and upgraded to a stage 3 if possible. Minimum stage 3 combat skin is required to survive zone teleportation. Reusing materials in existing armour and weapon components will help in conserving the already small supply of materials that still exist within this facility. Chances of achieving stage 3 combat skin are 49%." Solitude said.

"Step onto the platform, your combat skin will need to be upgraded and repaired. You, yourself, also need medical assistance." 037 hovered in front of the machine. Six hesitated. She could surrender her visible weapons no problem, but her armour was an entirely different matter. She hadn't removed the armour since her transfer to Noble.

"Do nothing but repair it." The Spartan warned, stepping onto the platform.

"As you wish, Reclaimer." The AI acknowledged, hovering out of the way.

Once Solitude was out of range, the Spartan was almost immediately surrounded by machines. Quicker than the UNSC every could hope to peel off Mjolnir armour off a super soldier, the Spartan was already without it in under thirty seconds. Not even ten seconds out of her armour and she shivered, despising how naked she felt without the protective equipment. Six was left in the armoured black undersuit which was in dire need of repair. Plasma burns were spaced out, with most gathering at the joints.

"I would change into this, Reclaimer." Solitude floating in front of her face, a second black bodysuit floating along with it.

Taking the bodysuit, the Spartan stepped behind a solid wall of opaque blue hardlight to change, while Vengeance Solitude floated over to a terminal, inputting a set of commands, instructing the Facility to upgrade the Spartan's armour. Six returned a moment later, allowing Solitude to take the damaged bodysuit and place it on an empty table as the Spartan's Mjolnir armour disappeared into the floor, the hole closed by reassembling blue pixels.

"And, if you so wish, Reclaimer, we can update your physical and chemical enhancements. However, due to an inadequate amount of time for preparation, the chemical and the physical enhancements being meant for my creator's genetic structure, there is a 12% chance that you will not survive the procedure and a 32% chance you will remain visually unaltered. The physical enhancements will also draw materials from upgrading your combat skin. Chances of stage 3 are reduced by a further 27%." 037 fidgeted in the air. Six thought for a moment, unmoving. She could make do with the armour as it was.

"Acceptable." The Spartan finally replied and stepped over to a medical berth. Clamps snapped over the Spartan's limbs as she lay down. Memories danced across her vision for a second before an injected sedative put the Spartan under.

~TimeSkip 2 Weeks~

The Spartan awoke, squinting at the artificial light that assaulted her temporarily sensitive eyes. After several seconds of rapid blinking, Six sat up on the medical berth, clad in her old armoured bodysuit once more, flexed her numb hands. The multitude of separate layers creaked as she made a tight fist. The Hyper-Lethal's mind ran at a mile a minute, digesting the newest information present within her mind. With an ever-dissipating sway, the Spartan stood and observed her surroundings.

She found her armour within seconds of beginning her search. The once scarred purple and white paint job was now as pristine as it had once been when it was first assembled. The void black of the visor was repaired as well, soaking in any and all light that struck its surface. The TacPad on the left wrist was less noticeable now, about a third as thick as it was previously, the blue glow it emitted barely noticeable compared to the artificial light occupying the room.

Six approached a mirror, noting the slightly darker tone her skin had received during her time unconscious. Her hair was the same; purple blood stains covered a good portion but didn't drown the dark blonde. The Spartan's electric blue eyes had taken a ring of gold around her irises. Satisfied, the Spartan turned to her weapons, occupying a small table next to her armour.

The DMR appeared relatively unaltered but weighed about a quarter less than it weapon had previously. The x4 sight on the marksman rifle had been squared and the ammunition counter below it had been removed, as well as the foresight. The slate gray construction seemed out of place amongst all the brighter metal. Hitting the ejection switch, Six pulled the magazine from the rifle and did a manual count. Fifteen rounds. With a quick motion, she returned the full mag to the stock of the rifle and moved to her Magnum.

As with the marksman rifle on the table, the Magnum was lighter but was noticeably larger than it was previously and possessed a more rounded frame. And, as she had done with the DMR, Noble Six ejected the magazine and counted the rounds stored within it. With a satisfied nod, the Spartan returned the extended 12-round magazine back into the handle of the weapon and set it down. The combat knife that sat on the opposite side of the table with the rest of her knives, all of which were lighter by some degree. Emile's Kukri, his trademark knife, was polished and glinting in the light, but was missing the dried blood that had occupied it's massive blade before. The Spartan smiled lightly, testing the weight of the blade. Same as before. At least something stayed the same

"I see you are awake, Reclaimer." Solitude appeared in a haze of yellow rings no more than a foot in front Six.

The chest plate was maneuvered into position and clicked into place on the Spartan's torso. Locks clicked with the armour's power unit and remaining torso piece. The armour was different, lighter. While not overly lighter, it was still a noticeable change to what it weighed before. Other clamps and locks whirred and clicked as the other parts of the armour were assembled around the Spartan.

"Your unique physiology provided quite the enigma with your augmentations, Reclaimer. Your original enhancements were not formed properly to allow for full combat potential. You should notice an increase of reaction time and combat effectiveness. I also took the liberty of upgrading your equipment, Reclaimer. Your combat skin is now a Stage 2, despite my own efforts to get it to Stage 3. Powerplant, shielding, and plating have been improved and updated to blueprints found in your armour's data records. A full list of modifications and repairs are on your wrist-mount device." 037 Vengeance Solitude commented as Six stepped off the armouring platform, rolling and rotating her limbs.

"My thanks, Solitude." 'Even though I told you not to upgrade it.'

The Spartan took her helmet from the grip of a clawed machine with a slight scowl and placed the device on her head, the pressure seal closing with an audible hiss.

As the Spartan raised her left arm, she tapped the backside of both her shoulder pauldrons. The quantum mirrors responded instantly, registering on her motion sensor. Then, with a few quick motions across the screen of her Tactical Pad, the Spartan brought up all of her enhancements. Simulations suggested an increase from fifteen to twenty percent increase for combat effectiveness. Shield strength increase by thirty-five percent, as well as an increase in her already superb reaction time by six-thousandths of a second. Theoretically, depending on how this affected 'Spartan Time', Six could potentially become untouchable by even some of the best of her brethren - the Spartan-IIs included. She scrolled further through the information, reaching the weapons section in a few swipes of her finger.

The Spartan's TacPad was now linked to a 'pocket dimension'. This pocket dimension carried all the ammunition the Spartan would need for years, and then some. In simplistic terms, this 'pocket dimension' was, essentially, a giant warehouse, filled the corresponding weapon munitions and grenades - Human and Covenant. Assault Rifles, LMGs, Heavy weaponry - you name it. The Spartan carried it. It took only a few seconds of digesting all the information to decipher how it worked and equip a trio of grenades. As the monitor returned, Noble Six finished equipping her weapons into their corresponding positions. She checked the side compartments on her thighs, nodding in satisfaction that the silver objects were still there.

However, a question still remained. She raised her arm again and double checked the lists within. "How did you acquire all the weaponry? I only arrived with a DMR, and a magnum."

037 fidgeted in the air. "I sent sentinels to the surface to acquire materials. They acquired some of your space-grade materials, electronics and more of your weaponry and some of your enemy. Unfortunately, forerunner materials have not been found. Unless a facility exists wherever you end up going, Reclaimer, forerunner weaponry will be unavailable."

"My thanks again, then." Six bowed her helmeted head a bit, lowering her arm back to her side. Vengeance bobbed in place a few times and zipped away, leaving the Spartan alone for a few minutes more before returning.

Carried within a small blue sphere guided by Vengeance was a data card. Six had an idea of what was on it, but wouldn't know for certain until the monitor confirmed it. The blue sphere descended to the Spartan's eye level before it popped, landing in the outstretched palm. Six studied the smooth metal blue and orange data streams moving along the three-inch length of the Data card.

"What is this?" The Spartan asked, turning the card over in her hand. They began the trek from the medical section to the main room.

"Data card, Reclaimer. It contains the remaining Five-hundred million gigabytes of relevant non-junk data stored in this facility. All of it is the original information itself. The other data has been purged from this facility's servers. The facility has enough power to provide one final function." Vengeance Solitude spoke, the blue light it emitted dimming slightly with the information the monitor imparted to the Spartan.

"What exactly is stored? Blueprints, technology, weaponry…?"

"Blueprints and history are all there is, Reclaimer. A backup is installed in our wrist-mounted device." Solitude replied almost instantly. "Included are my creator's entire history, and all recorded history of Humanity at their peak during the time of the Forerunners."

"So there is five-hundred million terabytes of Blueprints and History?" The Spartan confirmed. Vengeance bobbed in confirmation. The Spartan was silent for all of three seconds before replying. "Take it to Earth. If what you say is true, and I indeed possess a copy on my Tactical Pad, then I won't need it."

Besides, going back meant returning to The Office. The Hyper-Lethal Spartan had no intention of being ONI's Grim Reaper again. Not if she had a say in it.

"Where do you wish for it to go, Reclaimer?"

"Earth." The Spartan hid her annoyance at having to repeat herself.

"Of course, Reclaimer. Is there anyone, in particular, you wish for the chip to be sent to?" 037 inquired to the last of Noble.

"Admiral Terrence Hood, UNSC." Six responded almost instantaneously, her voice echoing her resolve. She'd met Lord Hood once, during an assassination mission for ONI. That meeting was… interesting. At least it helped get her to Noble.

"It will be done, Reclaimer." Summoning a Sentinel, Noble six surrendered the chip for transport.

As the Sentinel floated off, Noble Six double checked her gear. Her weapons were loaded, her blades as sharp as possible, and her dog tags around her neck. Nodding to Solitude, the duo ventured back to the Main room, where the console still lay, and the Sentinel disappearing with the chip. Twenty-six seconds is all it took for the Sentinel to deliver the chip to the requested person. As soon as it returned, it disappeared back down one of the two hallways.

Unexpectedly, 037 shot a blue and orange beam at the Spartan's Tac Pad, leaving a gift for the Reclaimer under its care. Jolting her arm back, Noble Six glanced at her TacPad before looking to Solitude with her armoured head tilted to one side in confusion.

"I have transferred two pieces of forerunner equipment to you. One of these is a Hard Light shield. The other is a vision setting. Also, it now possesses a limited ability to create. Anything larger than your small four-wheeled vehicles, a mongoose, according to your data, cannot be built." Six nodded in understanding before activated the Hard Light shield. It held for thirty seconds before turning red and disappearing.

Glancing at the icon just above the corner of her Motion tracker, the hard light shield icon slowly filled back up, returning to quarter charge after ten seconds. Removing her helmet, Six pulled her dog tags to her face, reading them over. The blackened and scorched B-312 shone under the artificial light. Turning to the other tag, she glimpsed the name she hadn't heard or used in years.

Artemis.

The Spartan sighed silently and turned them over, reading the engravings on the back of either tag. Her mother's name occupied one, while her siblings and father occupied another.

The Spartan returned her dog tags to her neck and placed her helmet back on her head. Glancing around the big room once again, she squared her shoulders and began walking around the area, deep in thought. 037 was silent as he prepared the glowing transport device in the middle.

"It is ready, Reclaimer. However, the success rate for a stage two combat skin is less than 70%." 037 interrupted, bringing Artemis out of her thoughts. Slipping her helmet back on, she looked towards the portal. As it swirled, the portal's blue barrier rotated opposite of its black interior.

"I'll take my chances, Solitude." The Spartan replied evenly.

The forerunner portal hummed, doubling its size to accommodate the Spartan, with no specific destination set. The Spartan's plan was clear: Disappear from the view of ONI and the UNSC. Let them believe she perished on Reach, living on in legend and story. Stepping up to the portal, Six drew her DMR, turning towards 037 Vengeance Solitude for a final time. She saluted the monitor in a gesture of thanks.

Solitude shifted slightly, unexpecting the salute from one under his care for the past couple weeks. The AI shifted again, producing a Hologram of the salute being returned from a UNSC Marine. An imitation of Gunnery Sergeant Stacker. Likely acquired from her armour's data drives. Smiling lightly under her helmet, Noble Six dropped her salute.

Returning her attention to the portal, Vengeance remarked for the final time to the Spartan. "Safe travels, Reclaimer. To wherever you may end up."

Six nodded her head, stepping through the portal and into the unknown beyond.

In an alleyway of an unknown planet, a dim flash of light resided in an alley before disappearing. The Spartan stood, taking in her surroundings.

'Not on a UNSC planet' Artemis mused, 'That much I know. Nothing on Comms, either. Good.'

This is exactly what the Spartan wanted. Pulling up her tacpad, Noble Six rifled through the few armour abilities she had received, spotting the hard light shield and Camouflage, along with Promethean vision. Activating her active camo, she switched to her weaponry, finding the form of the UNSC standard issue sniper rifle SRS-99. Swapping her DMR for the rifle, Six crept out of the alley, keeping along the wall of the old buildings.

After a little while, Six caught sight of a group of five, four men in black, sporting what looked like oversized machetes, all wearing red tinted glasses. The first man, who Six identified as the leader, was wearing a white suit and a black bowler hat with a red stripe, along with a cane. Locking the sniper to her back, Six trailed the group to a small shop, From Dust till Dawn, her augmented eyes following the group like a predator stalking its prey. After waiting for a few minutes, Artemis' motion tracker lit up, the answer to the movement being revealed by a pair of people flying through the window. Disabling her active camo, Six stuck to the shadows, watching as a small girl in red pulled out a giant scythe.

'What the hell? Kids with scythes? Just where the hell am I?' Artemis questioned herself, puzzled by what transpired not five seconds before.

She shook it off and raised the long weapon in her hands. Six's finger curled around the trigger but stopped short of compressing it. It would be foolish to fire, and she would definitely wake up the entire area and beyond. The SRS wasn't a quiet weapon by any stretch. Sighing, the Spartan watched as the red and back dressed girl took on the 4 goons. The man in white snapped her out of her thoughts.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were." The man sarcastically remarked, returning his attention to the girl with the scythe.

"Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around…" The man pointed his cane at the girl, the bottom flipping up to crosshairs. Six tensed, ready to jump in and pull the girl out of the way if absolutely necessary.

"I'm afraid, this, is where we part ways."

He fired, and the girl twirled her scythe and fired it into the ground, propelling her away from the blast and into the air. Artemis pulled up her Hard Light barrier to protect her from the blast, revealing her position to any paying attention. The cane-wielding criminal ran to a ladder as little red was preoccupied dodging the shot.

As the young girl was about to land, Six deactivated her hard light barrier, sprinting from cover, past little red and activating her jetpack after a moment of contemplation. Catching the girl, Six set Red down and continued onto the roof. Little red joined her nearly right away with a bang.

"Hey!" Red snarked.

"Persistent..." He muttered. A vehicle looking similar to a falcon that Artemis had used on Reach ascended, shining its spotlight on little red and Six. Her visor polarised, dimming the effects of the light. The Spartan scowled, positioning herself in front of the girl.

"End of the line, my annoyances." He threw a red crystal from his hand towards the ground in front of the duo, immediately taking aim at the falling crystal.

The Lone Wolf was magnitudes faster, however, her finger already depressing the trigger of her rifle. The 14.5x114mm High-Velocity Armor-Piercing round grazed the tumbling, volatile crystal. Even grazed, the potential-to-kinetic energy imparted onto the crystal by the large round fractured it, detonating it prematurely. The heat seared the Spartan's armour, leaving fresh scorch marks.

"Whoa-ho-ho," The sadistic criminal cried out in glee, believing he had eliminated the two people who had interrupted his job. "Huh?" He observed, confused.

When the Spartan looked up, she encountered a purple glyph. There was also a new player on the field, not five feet in front of the crouched super soldier. She had blond hair in a bun, a black and purple cape and a riding crop in one hand. Dispersing the shield, the woman brought the crop back, glowing a brief purple before unleashing an attack on the odd-looking vehicle. Artemis' shield warning finally quit, her shields regenerating with a golden glow. Scowling, Six waited for an opening to attack, her high calibre rifle pressed tightly against her armoured shoulder. Tendrils of purple energy arced towards the bullhead, hitting the vehicle from different angles. The aircraft shook but kept flying. With a swing of her wand, another blast rocketed towards the vehicle, conjuring storm clouds above it.

The woman flicked her hand down, and icicle shards lodged themselves into the aircraft, but it stubbornly kept flying. A new figure appeared with their arms lighting up with fire. A ball of fire shot towards the woman in front of Six, who conjured a shield, deflecting the attack. The ground around her suddenly started to light up.

The ground erupted into a pillar of fire, the woman backflipping away from the explosion, shards of the rooftop sent in all directions, before being manipulated and sent back towards the bullhead. Fireballs intercepted it before the shard arrow reformed, separating into three separate tendrils, circling the aircraft. They circled for a few seconds before a wave of fire from the mysterious figure obliterated the circling shards.

Red stepped up, her scythe collapsing into a high powered rifle, sending shots towards the figure, Artemis followed suit, firing her own rifle. The figure blocked the rounds, before waving a hand. Glowing circles appeared behind the trio. Six rolled, popping her barrier as the rooftop behind her exploded. She spun around in time to see the aircraft fly away and snapped off the final round in the magazine, putting a reasonable hole into the aircraft's hull for the type of round she fired. Six growled lightly, relaxing her arm on her propped knee. Tuning out the pair behind her, Six mulled over recent events. A tap on the shoulder drew her out of her thoughts, and Artemis came face to face with the older woman.

"I'm going to have to ask you to come along as well." Artemis shrugged in reply, magnetizing the ammunition-starved weapon to her back.

AN: Thanks to a guest review under the title 'Umm' for pointing out several errors in my original writing of this chapter. While I did want Noble Six to receive some benefits, I didn't want a completely overpowered character that wouldn't fit into the type of story I'm attempting to tell. I hope you readers enjoy this chapter version as much as you did the first.