NH3: I must give thanks to killerman83ca and StarLightSeraph, because they were quite possibly the single two who have helped me with this story and gave me encouraging feedback. Thanks you two! randomly hugs them

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1400 hours, April 18, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Time), Forerunner Ship, approaching Sanghelios, in Slipspace

The trip took two days for the journey to Sanghelios. The message had gotten out, and the majority of the fleet had gathered just in time. Even the humans and those Hunters that had remained on their side came as well. One day had been all it took: the battle had been fought for a day already. Yet frequent transmissions proved that Sanghelios was holding strong.

The Arbiter currently stood on the platform of control, unable to float due to the lack of a Forerunner suit. He had thought of using Nico's armor, but it didn't fit him. Nico had made a good recovery: although he needed more time, he could already walk limited distances, which was enough to make him smile, for the first time in days.

But Nico was having trouble with himself. He had taken the Arbiter's words to heart, but the lies still hadn't left him. Dr. Halsey was helping with that: she had a degree in psychology, and Nico's way of thought wasn't that different from a human.

The Arbiter returned attention to his controls. Next to him were Nate, Forerunner Primate, and the Master Chief, also controlling the starship.

"One minute to Slipspace exit," Ironic chirped from his spot. Arbiter flipped on his com.

"Jackson, Sufiyan, Cortana. Are the ship weapons ready?"

"Standing by."

"Good to go!"

"Charged and ready to fire," The ship had a large array of weapons controlled separately. Soldiers with such experience were using them. Now they waited, for the longest seconds ever. The battle was probably in their hands. If they failed, Sanghelios could fall also.

"Exiting Slipspace now," the orb said. The ship shook slightly as they transitioned to normal space over the north pole of Sanghelios. Ahead of them lay a sea of fire. The Sanghelios Fleet was constantly on its toes to make sure that Flood only got through when that ship was going to burn in the atmosphere. In the back of the fleet was a single, large ship. The Arbiter awed at this.

This ship had the length of High Charity's height. It was only half as fat, but it seemed held together by the Flood Nest inside. And surprisingly, every ship of the enemy had been organized. 

This was a feat of Cyber Forms, but the Arbiter had no doubt that ship held the leader of this attack. The best part was that the Forerunner ship had a straight path towards it.

"Weaponry, keep the cruisers off of us. We are going at that flagship," the Arbiter spoke with brimming confidence.

"Aye," was the common response. The Arbiter pushed the throttle very high, and they rocketed toward the flagship. Beneath them, ships exploded from the Forerunner weaponry. They reached the flagship and entered close combat, each ship bearing as many as the other, but landing no definite shots. The Forerunner ship was too fast, but the flagship was too massive.

"It must have a weak point…" the Arbiter whispered.

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1405 hours, April 18, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Time), Forerunner Ship, Infirmary, above Sanghelios,

The entire room held three things: the medicine/bio readings, the bed, and Nico in the bed. A holographic panel had been opened in front of him and he was scanning the flagship for a weakness. But he couldn't see any either. Nico lay back as the ship shook slightly, in deep thought.

Suddenly, there was a voice. It was very raspy, and very faint. It called out his name, but it seemed to come from nowhere. It called his name again, and Nico recognized it with dread.

"Regret? No, it can't be…I killed you, you and your lies…" Nico shuddered as he spoke into the room.

"No. You didn't. I live on inside of this ship…" the panel with the flagship seemed to flash in Nico's eyes.

"Glad you will die," Nico responded with a shaky confidence.

"I won't die! I'll live on! I'm the only weakness of my ship! No spy can escape the Flood's sight! And you are the weakness of yours, which should make this easy…" Nico suddenly felt searing pain in his head. He screamed, and the Forerunner metals did the same.

"No…I can't let this ship fail…" Nico strained against the pain, opening his eyes to an illusion of tentacles grabbing him through the panel, and Infection Forms rushing in, covering him, and consuming him. It was a battle of mental power, and Regret was winning.

It was a very sudden moment that changed the odds. Nico thought he was going to die, but then remembered fellow soldiers, heretics, everybody he valued. This thought made Regret scream as it boosted his own telepathy. Nico felt himself winning. In one final burst, Regret was finally vanquished!

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1410 hours, April 18, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Time), Forerunner Ship, Bridge, above Sanghelios,

Despite the many wounds given to the flagship, it was still holding hard. The Arbiter began to wonder if it even had a weak point.

"Arbiter, there is a buildup of power inside the ship!" Nate said, rapidly hitting buttons. The Arbiter noticed changes too: the ship had stopped firing. The Arbiter rocketed away from the close combat danger zone and spun the ship around. A bright aura was encompassing the ship, and cracks were appearing on it.

A minute of this odd activity continued, and then the ship blew spectacularly, sending debris into other Flood ships, eliminating most of the enemy fleet. The Arbiter was relieved at this. The fleet had lost leadership, guidance, and probably more. It would be simple to finish off the rest of the fleet. The Arbiter turned towards the last scraps of the fleet and began enjoying himself.

Ship after ship blew up in their wake. The work was finally done soon and the Arbiter relieved the controls to the orb. He went to the infirmary straight after, the Master Chief behind him. They reached it and found Nico in bed, oddly exhausted, despite his recovery. The Arbiter checked the medicine, but the levels were still normal. Something more had happened during this battle. He looked at Nico with a questioning look. Nico held his head in his hand.

"This is going to be one long story…" he sighed, as the ship shook and began to land on Sanghelios. They had finally come home…

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1300 hours, May 25, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Time), Predicted Miracle, in Slipspace, approaching Portal Site

After the "Battle of the Flood of Regret", as it was called, the entire crew that survived these separate instances was given a month's leave, so as to organize everything, regroup, gather all the information, and basically do all the extra work. They were glad for this, though Nico spent the first half complaining in bed.

That time was up though, and it was back to work, which looked to become boring very soon. The Arbiter watched the timer on his screen reach one minute and start counting. Nico sat in a commander chair beside him, performing menial tasks and also going through the paperwork he couldn't do when he was locked up in the hospital.

They had a new ship, which had been built and finished in the shipyard over Sanghelios a few days after the battle. It was in the Arbiter's honor to name it, so he named it after the miracle at his last great battle. He remembered how he had predicted the help from Nico. So the new ship's 

name was the Predicted Miracle. And in truth, Nico was the true captain of her: he had been promoted on Sanghelios to the new rank of 'Maven', which was equal to the 'Arbiter' rank. He still wasn't happy about the awards, but it made his day when the Arbiter came and said he would be commanding it for a while. They shared a fleet

Some familiar faces weren't there anymore: the Master Chief returned to fighting rebels seeking to take advantage of Earth's crippled status, although it had improved incredibly. The group of Forerunner Primates had left so some studies could be done on them. In truth, they were just as curious of themselves as everyone else was. David Jackson had also left to fight for Earth, but his legion remained on the ship. His promotion gave him control over a sizable amount of human forces.

There were, however, some new faces and one familiar one. Rebecca Robinson had been left in command of the ship's human legion, and she stood by on the bridge. Officers from the Recon, Shadow of Intent, and the Seeker of Truth began serving on the ship, creating another multi-race environment. These different minds could keep the ship running for millennia. And since they had gone to Earth recently, they had picked up Rtas 'Vadum (he was on Earth to lead a Sangheili Army) to help command the Predicted Miracle. He gladly took the position and now sat in the other commander chair next to the Arbiter.

They were currently on a survey mission, after a diplomatic mission to Earth, and surprisingly, the survey site was the portal where their last adventure began. The Arbiter couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Nico's thinking hadn't shot him through the portal, if the order hadn't been to preserve high-ranking officers, or if it had never thrown them out of Slipspace in the first place.

"Exiting Slipspace," Nico said, looking up at the view screen. Stars blinked into sight as they reentered normal space. The ship began to turn slowly.

"Sir, picking up the anomaly…wait, it's different. The sizes, volumes, they are all off," a human officer said.

"Odd…" Rtas said.

"What would that mean?" the Arbiter asked. The ship stopped turning to reveal the anomaly, which wasn't exactly an anomaly anymore…

"It's a planet…" Nico said. They were on the night side of the planet, so they saw many green lights on the surface. The life was sentient, they were sure of it. But scans didn't reveal much at this distance.

"Bring us closer," Rtas ordered calmly. The distance began to close.

"Sir, a flare just occurred on the planet surface. An unidentified ship is heading towards us," another officer said. The lighted flare could be seen on the view screen, and steadily, scans brought them views of the object heading towards them.

"By the gods…" Rtas whispered.

The object heading straight towards them was a Forerunner Dreadnought…

"Take evasive action!" the Arbiter said, noting that the ship would otherwise crush them. The ship dipped down.

The Forerunner Dreadnought fired its primary weapons, a beam that cut through the fleet, exploding everything it touched…

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NH3: This might be the longest chapter in the story. It is also the last. Finally, one of my stories have been completed. Of course, there is going to be a sequel. You won't see how the battle went or how they got away though—that's up to your imaginations. Thanks for reading this story everybody. A lot of you have said this was the best Halo fan fiction out there, and its made me really happy.

Once again, many thanks to killerman83ca and StarLightSeraph.

To StarLight, if you ever write a Halo story, then you can put Nico in it, because he is one of your favorite OCs

To killerman83ca, there will be more…