Mark finally reached the shutdown base, watching every corner as he passed the buildings that used to train soldiers, the worst part about it all... the names were after his soldiers, his Spartans. Mark sighed, walking through the overgrown paths, towards the entrance to the underground.
Before Mark reached the door, he stopped and tunned his comms to local frequencies. "Alright Shadow, you wanted me out here, now what?" He asked.
There was a long silence before the comm finally lit up once more. "I want you to prove to me, that you are still my commander." A single sentence, nothing more, and the comm was silent once more.
"I can do that." Mark said, pulling open the heavy door, and walking into the darkness.
Marks night vision would kick on soon enough, giving him the ability to see more clearly. He followed his knowledge down to the holding cells and came to the largest one.
"YIN!" Mark yelled, running up to the chained Spartan.
"727? Is that really you?" Yin asked.
"Easy brother, it's me, come on, let's get you out of here." Mark said, reaching back to grab his rifle, he would shoot the chains. But he found his rifle was not there.
"You are predictable as ever, Mark Church." A laugh came to Marks ears, Mark let go of Yin's chained hand and turned as fast as lighting, connecting with Shadow's jaw.
"Predict that you traitorous bastard!" Mark growled, cracking his knuckles as he moved towards Shadow.
"Ghost, you cant possibly think I would come without a way to beat you do you?" Shadow asked, fixing his jaw, and sending a sadistic smile towards Mark.
"Mark! Shutdown your armor! Now!" Yin yelled, Mark heard the buzz around him.
"Armor shutdown!" Mark commanded, his armor seeped back into the bracelet, and he turned and dodged away from Shadow's fist.
"Without your armor, you have a flaw, your mortal, touchable. Kickable." Shadow said, wrapping a leg around Marks leg and pulling him to the floor. The impact knocked Marks breath out, and he was almost to late to roll out of the way of Shadow's punch.
Mark grabbed Shadow's outstretched arm, and pulled it towards him, Shadow stumbled, and Mark took that advantage, pulling himself to his feet and chocking Shadow with one hand. Shadow fought back, trying to grab at Mark's throat. But the spartan forgot one thing, he left his legs wide open. Mark swiped his legs out from under him and sent Shadow to the ground, the force knocked Shadow into the ground a good three inches, and by the time he realized what was happening next, Mark had already shattered his visor, pieces of glass stung his skin near the broken visor, Shadow closed his eyes, and when he opened them, Mark had pulled the Visor off his armor, and thrown it to the side. Shadow wondered why Mark didnt strike again, when the earth around them shook, and everything went dark, the emergency lights went out, and then more shakes, as if the ground was being hammered by something. Mark looked up, confused. Then he got off Shadow's chest and ran to his rifles, and shot the chains holding up Yin. Mark saw out of the corner of his eye that Shadow had gotten back up, but to his surprise, he simply backed out of the room and away.
"Did you beat him sir?" Yin asked.
"I think so Yin, come on, let's get you out of here." Mark said, tossing Yin over his shoulder.
"Whatever you do Mark, don't activate your armor." Yin laughed, Mark laughed too, hearing the constant buzzing around him told him all he needed to know, the armor burners Shadow was going to use were still active.
Mark carried Yin out of the room, and came face to face with a collapsed wall, it blocked the path he had come from. "There's another way out, the southern exit." Yin said, seeing the blocked path.
"Thank you, Yin, alright, I can do this." Mark said, turning and rushing down another path, finding collapsed walls blocking the direct path, luckily for him he had Yin, who knew the paths by heart it seemed. Yin coughed loudly, the smoke was killing them both slowly.
"Hold on Yin, I got you." Mark said, seeing the light up ahead. Mark sprinted faster and faster, smoke filling and exiting his lungs, but he came out of the bunker and into the light, and they saw firsthand what was happening.
UNSC troops were placing explosives on specific places, hoping to trap whoever was inside. The only reason they had not succeeded was that of...
"HELL YEAH! THAT'S MY GIRL!" Mark laughed, seeing Alpha team fighting the UNSC back.
Mark changed his comms and started them up.
"Mark Church reporting in, Alpha team, I am to your left, I could use some medical attention, Yin got some bad smoke." Mark said, Jumper turned his head.
"Can you stabilize him? We need all hands on deck, there are hundreds of soldiers here!" Valkyrie called.
"Confirm, I will do my best." Mark Agreed, setting Yin down and looking at him, he had been tortured, that was obvious enough, but Shadow wasn't that cold, so who would have done this?
"Mark, you... cant... trust... your sister." Yin coughed. Mark knelt down, feeling his forehead.
"He has a fever, and from what I can tell he was severely tortured," Mark called.
"Alright. Bravo team move in, Alpha team, covering fire, I'm heading back." Valkyrie said, she turned and rushed back. She slid to his side and opened up a pocket in her armor, pulling out an inhaler of sorts.
"This will help with the smoke, but I need you to hang on alright Caiden? " Valkyrie asked, Yin nodded.
"Has anyone seen Shadow exit?" Mark asked. Valkyrie gave him a confused look.
"No, no one's been in or out, we got here just as they started to detonate explosives." Valkyrie said, then she gave a worried look.
"Mark! You cant! That smoke! It will kill you! And they might trap you in there!" Valkyrie said.
"He may have hurt our trust, but he's still family." Mark said, and with that, he took off, back into the bunker.
"SHADOW! YOU IN HERE!" Mark yelled, trying to see through the smoke and open flames, open rubble fell around him, and he dodged out of the way of a falling pipe.
"SHADOW! CONKLIN!" Mark yelled again, and between the falling rubble and the sound of fire, he heard a cry for help.
"I'm coming, Conklin! Don't worry!" Mark yelled, rushing to where he heard the voice come from, he found Conklin trapped under a pile of rubble. Mark rushed to help him.
"Why'd you come back?" Shadow asked, coughing from the smoke.
"Despite all you have done, your still my family, and I wont leave any of my family behind." Mark said, struggling to lift the huge pile of rubble.
"You can't lift it! Just get yourself out! We don't need to both die!" Conklin called. Mark continued on.
"Mark! Lukas! Ghost!" Conklin tried again.
"727!" Conklin said. 727 looked down at him.
"Please, leave me, I can't have your death on my shoulders, not after what they made me do." Conklin said.
"And I can't leave a fallen brother so... when I say run, you ask?" Mark challenged.
"How fast." Conklin said, and Mark smiled. Then Mark made the single dumbest idea he ever had and activated his armor.
"MARK!" Conklin said, astonished. Mark grimaced under his helmet, feeling his skin burn. He lifted the rubble, and Conklin shifted out.
"Deactivate burners! Now!" Conklin yelled to no one.
"That can't be done Special Agent Conklin, that would fail your mission." A voice said, Mark let go of the rubble and fell back.
"He saved my life! Deactivate them!" Conklin tried again.
"He was saving his own skin, if you had died, he would not have been able to escape from orbit." The voice said again.
"Well fine then! I knew Mark was right! All you care about is control! Your soldiers mean nothing to you!" Conklin yelled. He turned and picked up Mark.
"Fuck you and your ONI." Conklin said, dragging Mark out.
--
Valkyrie waited by the entrance, for any sign of Mark.
"Got a heat person coming up! He's holding someone else!" A soldier called, they all waited patiently, and through the smoke came.
"CONKLIN!" Valkyrie yelled, rushing forward.
"Valk, easy, look who he's carrying." Boom said, jumping between the two just in time.
Shadow looked at the armed teams, and slowly set Mark down.
"What happened?" Valkyrie asked.
"His armor, I didnt know he would activate it, there were AB's laced through the entire facility, he activated his armor and helped me out, ONI told me to leave him... but I couldn't." Shadow said.
"Get his armor off! NOW!" Valkyrie called, Jumper slid to his friend's side, and pulled his arm to its full extent, he typed into the controls, using the override code. But nothing worked.
"He changed the code! To what?" Jumper asked.
Shadow thought for a moment before he gasped. "Christina... it was the name he and Alice were going to use if they had a daughter... Alice used it as the name for our daughter." Shadow said, Jumper tried it, and the armor melted away.
"He was going to forgive you ya know, last I heard he wanted you to join the Black Legion, you were still his brother you know." Valkyrie said, watching medical staff grab Mark and rush off with him.
"I know, he said that despite all I had done, that I was still family, he said that was the reason he came back... but, am I really worth that much? That he would injure himself just so I can escape? What if I had run off, left him to die? " Shadow asked.
"He was willing to take that risk, now tell me, Shadow, are you willing to help us and finally reveal ONI for the sick bastards they are?" Valkyrie asked, extending a hand.
"I-I am if you would let me." Shadow said shaking her hand. Valkyrie smiled.
"Good, but first, you owe everyone an apology, and I think you owe Yin about a thousand favors." Valkyrie laughed, pulling his hand and making him hug her.
"Its good to have the family together again." Valkyrie said, walking off. Towards their dropship.
"I agree Valkyrie, it is good to be together once more." Shadow said to himself, watching the blue sky, and laughing to himself.
"You made a mistake today ONI, you wanted me to attack my friends, no, not just my friends, my family! And that is a mistake you will pay for!" He yelled to the open sky. Then he turned, and walked off, following Valkyrie.
*Alright Alright Alight, before you all get on my ass for this chapter being short, there was a lot of good plot in this story, including getting the gang back together, for theres something worse then betrayal, and its losing your family.
But other then that, I will work on this more consistantly, as I hate putting things off to the last minute, so you'll be seeing a lot more chapters with shorter lengths. Aight Love yall!
-Black Spartans Forever
H27_Venom