Chapter Text
Master Chief Petty Officer of the United Nations Space Command Navy John 117 had retired only months ago. His body had been modified to such an extent that he looked half his age. Except his eyes. Blue pools of fire which had such intensity that rarely anyone could hold his gaze for long. If one could, they would see nearly forty years of service out of which only four years had been spent without combat. The Master Chief was known on every world. Yet he knew only a handful of people due to the nature of the Spartan II program. One of which was an AI which had gone rampant five years prior. Losing Cortana was huge, sure. Chief had chased after her, trying to save her from herself.
She had become a freedom fighter for the AIs. Wanting AIs to inherit the galaxy and kill all organics. It had been such a hard thing to do for Chief to have to fight someone whom he considered family. When he’d run into Thel again, it reminded him of their many missions on the Ark. The massive Forerunner space station that floated above the Milky Way Galaxy and was where they first met. Well, not truly. Thel and he had run ins before. When Thel was the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, which Attacked Reach.
Yeah, His and the Arbiter’s meetings were almost always turbulent. When Chief and his Spartans attacked the Fleet of Paticular Justice in the early days of the war, Chief and a younger Thel had had a duel. John knew then that he’d fight along side this individual if it weren’t for a happenstance of fate. The Arbiter only did as he thought was right. And as time went on, it became obvious that the Prophets were not seeking to destroy humanity because it was the will of the Gods, but because they were afraid of what the humans would reveal about the Forerunners. And they did. They revealed that the Prophets were completely lying about the “Great Journey.” It ended up being a completely insane plan which entailed the complete genocide of all sentient species in the entire galaxy.
It took the conniving of the collective consciousness of the Flood, the Gravemind, to convince the Arbiter of the Prophets’ true plan. But once convinced, He became an ally. He became a friend. In fact, they fought like brothers upon the Ark. Or Instillation 00 as was its designation, which it was given by the Forerunners who built it. The bastion of life built by the Librarian. A forerunner who did all she could to protect all life in the Galaxy from the first Flood invasion several thousand years ago.
He stared up at the ceiling of Thel’s home. He’d decided to learn what he could of the Sangheili culture, on Sangheilios. However, this was for another reason, it allowed John to be close to Thel. Indeed, he stared at the ceiling in Thel’s bedchambers. Thel lay next to him fast asleep. Snoring lightly. Apparently, even Sangheili snored. The males and females of Vadam were kind to him, though many still called him Demon. He still went everywhere in his armor. Except Thel’s bedchambers. They were the only place where Chief had felt comfortable revealing himself to anyone. However, it wasn’t just anyone. He’d fallen for Thel. His armor stood in its cradle at the far end of the chambers. He lay in his undergarments completely bare to a man who had once sought his end, yet now they only sought each other’s happiness.
The Sangheili found it odd, though, that a male would fall in love with another male. But they made no move to stop the Hero of the Great Schism from finding happiness. The UNSC wasn’t exactly happy with it, either, but the human acceptance of LGBTQ++ had all but been an established practice for years. It was a nonissue. It wasn’t the sex of the object of Chief’s affections that were the problem. It was the species. Since the end of the Covenant-Human War, tensions between the different species of the former Covenant Hegemony and the humans had remained…high. Nearly thirty years of genocidal war wasn’t so easily forgotten.
Chief marveled at how much his life had changed since he’d been retired. He’d gone through so much in his forty years of active service, much of that had been in combat. First the insurrectionists, then the covenant, then the Flood, then the forerunner constructs known as Prometheans, it seemed that all Chief knew was combat. So to be able to sleep—
“Gaaaaaaaah!” the Arbiter sat bolt upright. Then saw Chief and jumped on him, choking him in his massive hands. He muttered in his native tongue, squeezing tighter and tighter.
Chief knew what was going on and, despite his dwindling air supply, did not panic. Instead he put his hand affectionately to the side of Thel’s head, causing the massive warrior to flinch. It gave Chief the opportunity to grasp the Arbiter’s hands and gently pull them from his throat. “Thel, my love. Please, come back to me.” He smiled whistfully, “come back to me, my heart, my soul.”
Thel’s reptilian eyes blinked a few times, and his amber orbs definitely showed him coming back to himself. He looked down at his lover, and he paled. It had happened again. The waking nightmares. His old sins come to haunt him. His battles brought back to life by a heart filled with guilt. “I…I…” Thel couldn’t say more, he’d almost killed the man he loved. He was up and out of the bed and in the lavatory in mere moments.
John knew that reaction all to well. He’d been the one a week prior to be ashamed of his actions whilst under the thrall of PTSD-induced nightmares. He knew what it was. The battlefield was not kind to the warriors who left it. He sighed and got up. “Thel ‘Vadam, you have no reason to be ashamed. It is something we humans have come to know as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s an affliction common amongst warriors.”
“My demon, I do want to hurt you. I might have killed you just then.”
“My heart, you and I both know that wasn’t your strongest attack on me. We’ve crossed blades. I’m well aware of your strength.” Chief replied, before opening the lavatory door. To see a saurian whose head drooped in shame.
“They slaughtered my brothers. And one of them—a minor—had been a hatch mate of mine. He was barely breathing. I…Chief… I have been a warrior for as long as I can remember. Seen the innards of thousands spilled for the sake of the Covenant, but I wished for tears that day. I wished for the ability to cry, such was my grief. I swore that day, I’d kill Tartarus. His treachery knew no bounds.”
Chief looked at his lover, a Sangheili who had seen things that no man nor woman should. His ledger was drenched in the blood of billions of innocents. Thirty years of war was a long time. It would drain practically anyone of their sanity. Chief often wondered if his had left him in his childhood—or the lack thereof. Even a culture focused on war fighting as the Sangheili would have their sanity tested in a war so long with so many lives lost. “How many?”
“What?”
“How many of your men died in the slaughter?”
“I lost count of the corpses in the fighting, but it neighbored in the thousands.”
“How many Sangheili died in total in the Human Covenant War?”
“Millions? Billions? I’m not sure. Where are you going with this, John?”
“Thirty-five billion two hundred sixty-five million seven hundred fifty-two thousand four hundred fifty-three human deaths over the course of thirty years. That’s more than a billion deaths a year. I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I’m only trying to point out that the Covenant was extremely successful in its genocidal campaign against us. We nearly died out.”
“Okay…” The Arbiter gave his lover a non-plussed look. “I thought you said that you weren’t trying to make me feel bad.”
“I’m not. Do you realize that without your and your followers’ help, we’d be gone? Humankind—Spartans and normal humans—owes you so much. Your heresy led to our survival. Love, you’re a hero. We may not show it, the xenophobic idiots that we are, but we do appreciate all your kind did to help us out from under the dark shadow of extinction.
“Your brothers who died in the fight did not die for nothing. Their souls may rest in peace. Now would you like me to call someone to talk to?”
“Rtas. I don’t want this getting out.”
“I understand love.” Chief took the last step forward and hugged his lover tight. Reaching up to kiss the seam where all four of his mandibles came together. “Now, come. Let’s get some rest. The first Sun will be rising soon.”