Author's Note: Hi everyone. Hope everyone's been doing well, what with this story having gone without an update for two or three years. I'd like to say that I spent that time productively, and I suppose I have. A bunch of my other friends who are writers and I have been working on a really big project, so that has been taking up most of my writing time (the rest of my time is spent on school, college is a crazy thing, ya' know?). But anyways, that's not why I'm here today. I'm here today, because of two reasons: the main one being, I'm here to let you guys know that I actually haven't forgotten about you or this story. Wolf and Wanderer is by far my most popular story (well, when you only have two and the other one nobody ever reads, I suppose that's not that high of a bar), and I know that many of you would love to see it continued, and hopefully completed. But like my problem with my other story, Project Nightingale (by the way, it'd be awesome if you guys would be kind enough to check that one out too), I can't say I'm happy with the way the story reads. But I didn't want that to be a reason for me to never touch it again, which is why I'm doing this.

I'm rewriting Wolf and Wanderer. Redesigning the plot, reestablishing characterizations, hopefully keeping a consistent narrative tense and POV, etc; and this is going to be the first step towards that. Unfortunately I haven't gotten the chance to rewrite all of the chapters like I did with Project: Nightingale, but I'll try to get on that as soon as life allows me too.

But anyways, I think I've wasted enough time on this author's note. Without further ado, I present to you the story of two unlikely heroes as they face their destiny.

Also no copyright infringement, as always

The Wolf and the Wanderer

Chapter 1: The Lone Wolf

There are a lot of stories about heroes. Stories where a hero is born in some kind of land or world and there's some kind of tyrannical emperor or force of evil that threatens the peace or the lives of the people there. The hero then finds out that it's his or her destiny to stop this evil, and fights long and hard to see it fall, and to hear the people cheer and celebrate. In many of those stories, the hero gets to deal the final blow himself. Sometimes they live to hear the cries of victory, but sometimes they have to take the sacrifice and have just have faith their companions can carry on. My story, I think anyways, falls closer to the category of the latter version. I don't think I'm any sort of big hero, and given what my life and job was like before, it'd be rather difficult for anyone to call me that. But what I did, I always did because I believed it ultimately served the greater good. And that's why I decided to take that sacrifice. Because I believed that it would give my companions, my friends, as well as the rest of humanity a fighting chance, and I would gladly exchange my life so that they could live on.

Only, it didn't. Or, to be more accurate, I didn't die.

I'm guessing you want to know more, right?

Well, we'll start here then. My story begins on the planet Reach: a human colony of the United Nations Space Command, and one of the last lines of defense between the Inner Colonies, and Earth. For centuries, this planet has stood as the central fortress of the UNSC, where ships were constructed and directed, where the headquarters of every major branch of the military was stationed, and where the most elite of human military forces, the SPARTANs, were trained. Needless to say, Reach is a rather vital planet, and if the most powerful of humanity's enemies, the alien alliance known as the Covenant, were to attack it… well, let's just skip to the important part, shall we?

It would be very bad, and I was right in the middle of it when it happened.

A little more than a few weeks ago (before the day everything changed anyways), I never would've believed it. Then again, a few more weeks ago, I was off eliminating entire groups of rebels in the outer colonies. I had a talent for killing, or so my superiors would often say. I suppose they weren't wrong, though I'm sure any kid who had lost everything due to some terrorist attack and was given elite special ops training and physically augmenting drugs would be good at it. That's a story for another day though.

Anyways, a few weeks ago, I wasn't even on Reach. I had only been recently reassigned to a joint spec ops team named Noble. They lost a member, and the brass decided that the spot would best be filled by a hyper-lethal Spartan. Can't say that I minded, though it wasn't exactly what I was used to, being a "lone wolf" and all. Our first mission, or at least my first mission, took us to the farmlands where we assumed insurrectionist forces were causing trouble at a comm relay. It should've been a routine job: go in, eliminate the rebels, save the researchers, bring the relay online, and be back for dinner in the mess hall.

Imagine our shock when we found that we found out we probably wouldn't be back that early.

Thus began a long campaign across that included nighttime recon, ground wars, destruction of buildings, and even a trip to meet the genius behind the original SPARTAN II program.

And my favorite part, a trip into space to destroy a twenty-nine kilometer long Covenant Supercarrier.

That also leads us to the most important part: the suicide mission, on the bridge of a Covenant Corvette, surrounded by hundreds of alien monsters, defending a makeshift slipspace bomb.

If I were to place this on my top five list of insane missions I've gone on, this would have to be number two.

"Well done, Noble Six," our CO, Colonel Holland, radioed me as I stood over what I assumed was the corpse of the ship's captain. That's my name by the way, or callsign anyways. Noble Six, otherwise known as Sierra-312. "UPPERCUT initiated. Corvette is underway."

"Six! Our ride outta here is taking heavy fire!", my partner, Jorge-052, radioed from the corvette hangar just as I heard the bridge doors opening followed by gunfire and the death scream from one of the troopers.

"Take cover!" I shouted before I dove behind the crates, the two remaining soldiers following suit.

'Damnit, I'm out of ammo,' was my first thought as I tossed my rifle to the side and pulled out my magnum off its magnetic strip on my thigh.

'Alright, 3...2...1….'

I vaulted over the weapon crate, and in the first few milliseconds took note of the four Covenant soldiers. A pair of grunts majors wielding Needlers, a single jackal with an energy shield and plasma pistol, and an elite minor.

'Simple then.'

I fired off two shots, landing direct hits into the grunts' heads, their bodies falling to ground like rocks. I landed on the ground, without stopping, I grabbed the spare grenade on my hip and lobbed it at the surprised jackal. Before it could react, the explosive detonated, disabling its arm mounted shield and sending the bird-like alien flying backwards. Before the minor could level his plasma repeater at me, I shot with my pistol first, staggering the tall alien before sprinting forward and landing a solid punch to the minor's mandibles, breaking his shields (and jaw by the sound of it) and causing him to fall over, dead.

"Lieutenant, look out!" I heard a trooper shout out as my genetically enhanced senses picked up the familiar sound of a concussion rifle getting fired at me.

At that moment, I thought a simple, rather rational thought for anyone in my situation: 'Oh crap.'

I braced myself as much as I could for the blast. And a second later, the gun lived up to its name as I got thrown into a pile of crates.

"Suppressing fire!" the troopers shouted as they unloaded their assault rifles into the back of the elite. As quickly as I could, I pulled myself out from the pile and grabbed a plasma pistol from the crate. In one swift motion, I charged it and leveled it at the elite who then turned towards the two soldiers.

'Not this time, monster,' I thought as I released the overcharge blast. The volatile green blast met the tall alien's shields, causing them to burst upon impact. Taking the opportunity, the troopers fired quick bursts into the staggered major's head, killing him.

"Lieutenant, are you alright?" the sergeant asked me as he ran over.

"I'm alright. What about you two?"

"Private Jones and I are alright. Low on ammo though," he replied. "Anderson didn't make it though."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I appreciate it, Spartan. We should head back to the hangar now," he said as he gestured towards the door. With a nod, I reloaded my weapons and took point.

The path back was just as eventful as the way to the bridge, and I'm pretty sure it was only by luck that we managed to fight through so many covenant kill squads in one piece.

Not that it really mattered though, since as soon as we got to the hangar, the first thing to greet us were four, blue, volatile plasma launcher bolts.

"Scatter!" I shouted before evading to the left. I heard the metallic thud of the trooper behind me roll away as well, but the sudden screams of panic right before the sound of an explosion let me know that the other one was not so lucky.

"Sergeant Reyes!" Private Jones shouted out in anguish before he returned fire, killing one of the grunt minors and unshielded jackals. My reflexes kicked into gear, and I quickly rolled forward. As quickly as I could, I dispatched the remaining covenant, as well as the grunt carrying the plasma launcher.

As I turned around to see the surviving trooper fending off several grunts as well, I saw the familiar shimmer of a cloaking field approaching from behind him. Before I could shout out and warn him, the glowing prongs of an energy sword pierced the soldier's chest, and he was lifted up in the air by the now-uncloaked elite ultra, who turned his attention towards me.

Acting fast, I primed one of my grenades and lobbed it over, before taking diving behind one of the metal barricades. I heard it explode, and immediately I took aim. The alien was still standing, but its armor was smoking, telling me its shields were down. I took aim directly into its head and squeezed the trigger on my DMR, fully expecting to cause the monster's head to explode.

Except it didn't. I pulled the trigger, and all I heard was the clicking of an empty magazine.

'You've got to be kidding me'

Just as the elite ran out of cover, most likely to impale me for all of its alien brothers I've killed, a flurry of bullets suddenly came and ripped it apart.

"Good of you to come," the towering armored SPARTAN-II said to me as he lowered his heavy machinegun. "Hostiles were pounding the hell outta the Pelican."

I nodded in response as I tossed away my empty rifle and picked up the dead ultra's energy sword as well as a needle rifle that was laying on the ground.

"Let's just get this over with," I replied as I reloaded the rifle.

Almost on cue, the doors on the opposite side of the hangar opened up, and out came more covenant.

The two of us fought off wave after wave of grunts, jackals, and eventually elites, each time they sent out more experienced soldiers, and each kill team was even more determined to kill us.

At least that was the impression I got when another elite ultra tackled me after I killed its friend. Even though its face was covered by its helmet (and disregarding the fact that its face resembled something out of an old horror movie), I could tell it was probably contorted in some kind of terrifying scowl as it tried to stab me with its energy dagger. It missed, of course, burrowing the energy blade in the floor right where my head was a split second ago. Taking advantage of the chance, I hooked the alien's head from the left, staggering it. With my right arm freed, I pulled the energy sword off my hip and punched upward with it, activating it a few inches away from its chest. There was a flash of light from the blade's activation, and the first thing I felt was the heavy body of the elite collapsing on top of me.

'Well, that was tiring' I thought as I pushed the corpse off of me and stood up. Looking around the hangar, I noticed for the first time today just how much blood and bodies we had accumulated in this short skirmish.

"And stay down…" I heard Jorge triumphantly declare. With the room completely cleared of hostiles, I let out a breath of relief that I had been holding for awhile.

"Savannah did a number on the door," the Spartan-II relayed over the comm. "There's no way back up to the Sabres. Noble Six, form up on me."

Despite what Jorge said, for the first time during this mission, I felt like we had finally overcome the biggest challenge.

I mean, the worst was over, right? All we had to do now get set the timer, get on the pelican, and go home. Right?

Well, my partner's frustrated pounding on the slipspace bomb was my first clue that that was not the case.

"Distance is closing on this vessel's refueling track with the Covenant supercarrier," our field surveyor AI, Auntie Dot, informed us over the comms. "Seventy-six seconds to endpoint."

"Damn it..." the Spartan muttered as he forcefully hit the detonator. "So it's going to be like that?"

He glanced at me standing off to the side, before hitting the bomb again.

"Well, I got good news and bad news," he told me grimly. "This bird took some fire and her thruster gimbal is toast. Which means the only way off this slag heap is gravity."

Well, isn't that unfortunate.

"And the good news?" I asked, even though part of me already knew what the answer was.

"That was the good news."

Yep, there it was.

"At current velocity, fifty three seconds to endpoint." Auntie Dot's voice chimed in, only slightly breaking the bleak atmosphere that had fallen.

"Yeah, yeah…" he said dismissively as he took off his helmet, the grimace on his face telling me just how dire the situation was. "Bad news is, timer's fried. I'm gonna have to fire it manually."

"That's a one way trip," I replied simply.

"We all make it sooner or later," he replied starkly. "Better get down down there, Six. They're gonna need you-"

"No." I cut him off. I remember hearing those words got me so caught up in the moment, as well as thinking that maybe if I had been a different person, I would've made a different decision. But in the singular moment, all I could think about was what I should... no... what I had to do.

"Excuse me?" he responded, his voice and expression a mixture of surprise and indignance.

"You go. I'll stay behind." I repeated affirmatively.

"No, Six. I have to stay behind and be the one to-" he began to protest, but I cut him off again.

"No, you don't," I asserted again. "I can stay behind and take myself and every single alien monster aboard this ship and the one above us straight to hell, and you can go down there to rejoin Noble Team. Maybe you guys could even turn this war around."

When I said that, Jorge's face took on a different expression. Not quite one of anger, or of surprise, but more like curiosity. "Why?"

"Because I'm far more disposable than you are." I answered.

"And what makes you say that?"

"You're a Spartan II, one of the famed supersoldiers that are never supposed to die. I'm just a Spartan III. Mass produced to be sent on suicide missions that we weren't meant to come back from. It's a miracle I've made it this far."

"Is that really the reason you want to stay?"

I gave a sigh and pulled my helmet off my head. "Jorge, I have to do this. You have to be the one who goes down there. If you go instead of me, humanity… Reach… the rest of Noble Team… They'll all have a better chance to make it out of this hell."

There was a pause. Neither of us spoke for what seemed much longer than a few seconds at best. The silence was broken when Auntie Dot chimed once again. "Noble Five, Noble Six. We are running out of time. Please arm the bomb and evacuate the area."

"We're out of time. You have to go." I asserted once more.

The towering Spartan looked intently at me for the briefest moment before putting his helmet back on. "Alright. I'm not going to argue anymore."

I nodded before pulling my dogtags out from my collar. "I can't give you much time."

"I know," he replied as he took the metal tags from me. "It's been a good run, Andreas. I'll make sure to let them know what you did here."

"Thanks." I said quickly as he made his way to the air-lock. "Tell them to make it count."

Jorge didn't respond that time. Instead he gave a simple nod back to me. Something of a sign of respect, I remember.

The feeling of despair that would normally fall upon a person after they've been essentially sentenced to death didn't fall on me. Maybe I had gotten used to it after my time as a soldier. Maybe it was because I had accepted that this was my fate. I'm not really sure what the reason was behind it, but I do remember walking up to the bomb, punching in the detonation code, and then being consumed by a damaged violet and black slipspace portal.

I also remember opening my eyes to the sight of nothing having been changed. The sight of the hangar and the corpses, covenant and human alike.

I was stunned, to say in the least, to find that after expecting certain death, I was not granted it. Questions quickly popped into my head: I'm still alive? What happened?

However, the questions of why I was still alive were pushed aside soon after I turned to look out the hangar door to see a sight that I would never forget for the rest of my life.

"Is that Earth?"

Post Note: So there you go. The return of the Wolf after a three year hiatus. Hopefully his better half will make her appearance soon enough.

But anyways, I figured something I definitely should put here is, anyone who stuck around for this story to be updated and still have invested interest in my crap, I personally just want to say a huge thank you. You guys are awesome, and anyone who says differently can answer to me about that. And I really do hope that you enjoyed this rewrite of a rather old story that I still can't believe it's as popular as it is (and it's not even that popular). Leave a review if you enjoyed this, or if you didn't and think I should change anything, leave a review for that too, and as with all things, you guys have a good one.

Takaro out

Beta Readers:

hadesmessenger

TAMATOR91

Oh, and one last thing. I wanted to dedicate this chapter to the memory of one of my personal heroes, Monty Oum.