Halo: Fireteam Phoenix

Chapter 24: Fireborn

"Connor?" Marie said quietly.

His reply took a moment. "Yes?"

"I..I found a lifeboat. A human lifeboat."

"A what?"

"A human lifeboat. Fit for one person. Life support, cryogenics, everything." She paused for a moment. The air was stale. She wasn't sure how long they had left before they suffocated. "They must have been studying it." 

"You take it," he said without hesitation. "You're worth more than I am, and you aren't bleeding to death." His voice held steady, to his credit. Marie's voice caught in her throat.

"I appreciate the offer Connor," Marie said, her glistening face visible as the red lights flicked back on. "But I cannot accept. I will not fit, and it is essential my armour remains out of covenant hands."

 "But Marie...There must be another way!" 

"No, Connor. You have hope for a future that I will never have."

"What do you mean? Life as a cripple isn't exactly fulfilling."

"But it is a life. You may yet find love, a spouse, have children. You may create, bring joy into the world. I cannot do such things."

"Why not? Marie, you're worth more than you give yourself credit for."

"This is not my voice. I am not speaking. This is a soldier's voice. For that is all I am. All I ever will be." She paused, her breath coming slower now. "Do you know the true origin of the spartans?"

"No?"

"We were enlisted as children. Stolen from our homes, engineered into the perfect soldiers. Trained to kill, and nothing else." 

"Connor, I am eighteen years old. All I know is war. All I will ever know is war. I cannot return home when my duty is complete. My duty will never be complete. There shall always be foes that threaten humanity. That threaten order. I shall always be here to face them. For as long as I live." Brief though that may be, she thought.

"Marie, I...Jesus, I didn't know."

"No one does. Believe me, it is easier this way. I long for respite. to join my comrades, in whatever awaits me beyond the grave." Connor was rocking as she placed him in the pod, alone. As the glass shut down and started to freeze over, she placed a grimy, bloodstained hand on the windowpane. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Connor returned both gestures, holding the hand up until the glass froze over and he could no longer be seen. Letting her hand slide away, the trail of blood left a dirty brown smear on the pristine glass.

As she pressed the button to launch the pod, Marie felt a sort of bliss. Calmness swept over, unlike anything she had ever felt before. She had expected to break down, her head in her hands, grasping her skull to try and ebb the flow of tears. But she sat, legs folded, back straight and arms flat. Peaceful. Almost. 

As her lungs emptied, and her breath became heavy, panic settled in once more. It wasn't until she started to feel herself slipping that she achieved true peace. Or, descended into madness. 

Richard stood there. Of course, she knew he wasn't, but she allowed herself to be fooled. "Richard, cherie. Oh, how I have missed you."

"I know you have. But it won't be long now, and we can see each other again."

"I know. I must ask, how does it feel? To die?"

"When you're dying for something? Better than you'd think." 

She was dying for something. For Connor. Wasn't she? No, it didn't matter. He put a soft hand on her shoulder. She held a grenade between her hands like a freezing person holds a warm drink "Thank you." She cried, feeling tears roll down her face. One splashed over the sphere, and she pulled the pin. "Now, I take my first steps on the final Great Journey."