"Tartarus."

The High Chieftain's mind froze for one moment as he recognized that voice.

"Impossible," he uttered to himself, but as soon as he turned around, reality showed him that the Arbiter was indeed standing very much alive.

"Put down the Icon," the accursed Sangheili said.

"Put it down?" Tartarus replied incredulously, "And disobey the Hierarchs?"

"There are things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not understand."

His captains took a step forward menacingly, ready to slay one who would utter such blasphemy.

Tartarus held them back with a gesture; he knew the Arbiter. He may be a fool and an incompetent, but he was not a heretic in the true sense of the word. Yes, he had disrespected the Forerunners by allowing the destruction of the Sacred Ring to happen, but that was because he was weak, like the rest of his kind. His loyalty to the San Shyuum, however, was certain. Then again, that was before the Chieftain had boasted that the Hierarchs had ordered his death. But perhaps the Sangheili could still see reason.

"Take care, Arbiter. What you say is heresy."

"Is it?" he replied challengingly, and then addressed the round relic in the grip of one of his captains, "Oracle, what is Halo's purpose?"

"Well, collectively, the seven…"

"Not another word out of you!" growled Tartarus, grabbed the Oracle from his captain's hands and almost carried out his previous threat to rip out its eye. He never understood what their purpose was; after all, why did they need Oracles when they had Prophets?

"Please," came a cocky voice. It was the dark-skinned human holding a Beam Rifle and was pointing it directly at the Chieftain's head, "Don't shake the light-bulb."

His captains again started to advance forward, but the sniper growled, "If you want to keep your brain inside your head, I'd tell those boys to chill!"

"Stand down," Tartarus barked to his guards, and they grudgingly obeyed.

"Go ahead," said the sniper, addressing the Arbiter, "Do your thing."

The Sangheili once again asked the Oracle the purpose of Halo.

"Weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunners to eliminate potential Flood hosts, thereby rendering the parasite harmless," explained the Oracle eagerly, now able to speak its piece.

Tartarus was shocked into a state of disbelief. It could not be. The gates to godhood could not possibly be mere (if powerful) weapons of war. There was no way a faith that had kept the Covenant together for thousands of years to be false. Yet it came from the mouth of a creation of their lords, the guardian of the destroyed Sacred Ring.

"And those who made the Rings? What happened to the Forerunners?"

"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned."

The second blow was as great as the first. Could the lords that the Covenant had worshipped for so long not be ascended, but long since crumbled to dust? Killed by the very weapons they had created? Tartarus looked at the Arbiter, to see how he was reacting to the Oracle's words.

The Sangheili bowed his head, looking sad but not entirely surprised at the news. He believed it. But did that mean the Arbiter was partaking in heresy, or reality?

Hesitantly, the spherical relic spoke again, "Would you like to see the relevant data?"

Instead of replying to the Oracle, the Arbiter addressed the Chieftain with the last words he would ever expect to come from his mandibles.

"Tartarus, the Prophets have betrayed us."

Us.

The Arbiter said the Prophets betrayed us. For a third time in less than a minute, Tartarus was floored. How could the disgraced Sangheili think that the Hierarchs had betrayed the Jiralhanae? The Sangheili could feel that way from their point of view, but what did they expect, after failing to protect the Prophet of Regret? But the Jiralhanae were the Prophets' most loyal and strongest servants.

So were the Sangheili, said a small voice in the back of his head, They had protected the San Shyuum since the beginning of the Covenant, and the Hierarchs saw it fit to kill them all.

Tartarus internally growled at that voice. The so-called Elites had broken their part of the Holy Writ first, by allowing the Prophet of Regret to die at the hands of the Demon. But was that enough to warrant genocide? Tartarus was not opposed to this idea; he was very supportive of wiping out every last Sangheili in existence, but that was because of how they had mistreated his kind. Regret's death was certainly enough of a reason for the Elites to lose their position as Honor Guards to the Prophets, but what was the crime against the Hierarchs that all the Sangheili deserved to die?

The High Chieftain had not cared about the reason until now.

Perhaps it is the same reason the Prophet of Truth allowed the Prophet of Mercy to die.

That thought had festered in the back of Tartarus' mind ever since he had followed Truth's orders to let the parasite consume the Hierarch. He believed that he did the right thing in the end; after all, among the Jiralhanae, only the strongest survived, and the weak died. But the Prophets were higher than his kind, and their rank as leaders of the Covenant and interpreters of the gods already proved that they were deserving of being protected at all costs.

The Prophet of Truth said that the Great Journey waited for no one. But it would have taken mere seconds to save the Hierarch from a fate he did not wish even on the Sangheili, much less one of the High Prophets, the most revered leaders of the Covenant. Yet Truth had dismissed the fallen Prophet as a lost cause immediately. Despite the reason Truth had given, despite the fact it had come from the mouth of the highest of the Prophets, Tartarus felt as if it were an inadequate answer.

He paused, thinking about his enemy's words. The Arbiter. Former Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee. Tartarus had thoroughly enjoyed the Supreme Commander's trial and punishment, seeing it as further proof of the superiority of the Jiralhanae over the Sangheili. But he did not enjoy branding the Sangheili as much as he thought he would, because of his actions toward the Chieftain's own brethren.

Most Sangheili did everything in their power to kick the Jiralhanae low and keep them as far away from their ships and armies as possible. Faulty equipment, unimportant campaigns, and barely functional ships were all methods the Elites had used against those they haughtily called Brutes.

But not Supreme Commander 'Vadamee. In the Fleet of Particular Justice, from what Tartarus had heard, Jiralhanae served alongside the Sangheili. Not on the same ships, of course, and their armies remained mostly separate. Tensions were too high between the two races to risk an internal conflict in the face of an enemy, but there were Jiralhanae in the charge of 'Vadamee. Almost every other Sangheili would never sully themselves by having to take responsibility for such a "savage" race. That was the first unusual thing about the Supreme Commander.

The second was how the Supreme Commander treated his Jiralhanae. The best equipment and ships still went to the Sangheili, of course, but Jiralhanae under the command of 'Vadamee they did not have to worry about their ships or weapons breaking down in the middle of combat. Under 'Vadamee, Jiralhanae were treated more as fellow members of the Covenant, and less as hated rivals.

And that Sangheili was standing in front of him, telling Tartarus that they could still be allies. The Arbiter was giving him a chance for them to join forces and survive a lie that had deceived both of them.

The High Chieftain of the Jiralhanae was shocked to find that he was tempted by the Arbiter's offer.

He noticed the looks his captains were giving him. They looked angry at the apparent heresy that was coming from the Oracle, but there was also a seed of doubt in their eyes. They were looking to him for guidance. They wanted their revered Chieftain to direct them to the truth: was it from the mouth of the Prophets, or the words of the Oracle?

He thought about what it meant to be Jiralhanae: Strength and Loyalty. One had to be strong in order to survive, and one had to be loyal in order to live. Rukt had said, "A loyal warrior without strength is useless, and a strong warrior without loyalty is an abomination." It was the duty of every Jiralhanae to be strong and obey their chieftains. Of course, one could challenge for the right to lead, as Tartarus himself had done with his uncle at the beginning of the war with the Humans, but once that strength was proven, it was expected that a warrior obey any order given, even if meant going to their deaths.

If the Arbiter and the Oracle were telling the truth, then the Prophets were no longer worthy of being obeyed. But if the Prophets were right, then they were more than deserving of the loyalty of the Jiralhanae.

Tartarus' moment of indecision was ended when he remembered why he served the Prophets in the first place, and why he hated the Sangheili.

The Arbiter may have treated the Jiralhanae fairly, but the rest of his kind certainly did not. Ever since they had joined the Covenant, the Sangheili had put them down, treated them little better than Unggoy. But the Hierarchs, especially the Prophet of Truth, had given Tartarus' people a chance. He had lifted them up, showed how much he valued their strength. And Tartarus was not about to disappoint him.

"No, Arbiter!"

He threw the Oracle at the sniper, and forced the human commander into placing the Icon into Halo's control panel.

"The Great Journey has begun! And the Brutes, not the Elites, shall be the Prophets' escort!"

Now, Tartarus was not truly fighting for the Great Journey. Not anymore. Now, he was fighting for the only ones who had truly valued the Jiralhanae, the only ones who let the Jiralhanae have a chance at showing their strength.

If the Prophets were right, then Tartarus would find his reward on the Great Journey. If they were wrong, then at least he would die a loyal warrior.

Author's Note: In truth, I usually have very little sympathy for the Loyalist members of the Covenant, especially the Brutes and Prophets. But I also know that everyone, human or otherwise, have their own reasons for doing what they do. They are not always good reasons, and they certainly do not excuse acts of evil, but there is almost always a reason.

I will say this about the Brutes: they are loyal. If you look at the other Covenant Loyalists, the Brutes are the only ones that really follow the Prophets because they actually want to. Grunts just followed whoever was in charge of them at the time of the Schism, Jackals stayed with the Covenant to be paid, Drones see the Prophets as Queens, and the motives of the Hunters are left a mystery. It's a bit tragic to see such unswerving loyalty wasted on those who do not deserve it, when you think about it.

I had always liked the Arbiter's attitude towards the Loyalists. He never seemed to show hate towards the deluded members of the Covenant, and more than once he tried to tell his enemies of the truth. He doesn't even seem to show much disdain towards Tartarus, the one who had tortured, branded, and attempted to kill him and the rest of his species. The Arbiter does not try to take revenge on Tartarus, but instead tries to persuade him of the truth. I think that for a moment (an extremely brief moment), Tartarus considered the Arbiter's offer. And still, in Halo 3, the Arbiter never showed that much hatred toward the Brutes, reserving all his rage for the San Shyuum, especially the Prophet of Truth.