John watched as the Didact fell off the light bridge into the swirling orange abyss below. He crawled over to the bomb and successfully managed to arm and activate it, blowing the Forerunner race into nonexistence. But it was neither of those that kept him up during the night. The Didact had deserved to die, and the Forerunner race had been bent on the extinction of the entire universe, so he had nothing to feel there but anger at them for all the good men they'd killed. What was bothering the Spartan though were the few minutes after that was accomplished. Those minutes where Cortana had last spoken to him, those minutes where the AI had finally died. They were ingrained in his memory, haunting his dreams.
"How..." he began, trailing off the sentence as he tried to understand how Cortana was standing in front of him, just a head shorter than him.
"Oh, I'm the strangest thing you've seen all day," she said, giving him a small smile.
"But if we're here," he began, not finishing his sentence.
"It worked," Cortana told him. "You did it, just like you always do."
"So how do we get out of here," John asked, looking around at the light blue walls, covered in glyphs and moving holographic symbols.
"I'm not coming with you this time."
John got up from the bed he was laying on, moving to the bathroom and turning on the light as he leaned over the sink. He turned on the tap and splashed some cold water on his face, trying to stop the memory for the fifth time tonight
"What," John asked, feeling the first trickle of fear.
"Most of me is down there," Cortana replied, looking down at the floor. He understood what she meant, and it only made him even more scared, rather than comforting him, knowing that his only friend was sacrificing herself to save him. "I only held enough back to get you off the ship."
"No," he said immediately, not wanting to believe it. "That's not-we go together!"
"It's already done," she replied, her voice cracking.
John tightened his grip on the edge of the sink, gritting his teeth as tears started to form in the corner of his eyes. He shook his head, his brown hair which had grown over the past few months shaking along with the movements.
"I am not leaving you here," John replied.
"John," Cortana said softly, moving forward a step and laying a hand on the chestplate of his armour. She released a shaky breath and said, "I've waited so long to do that."
"It was my job to take care of you," he replied as she let her hand fall, turning his head away to try and keep her from seeing past the orange tinted visor.
"We were supposed to take care of each other," she replied, drawing his attention again. She gave him a smile and said, "And we did."
"Cortana, please," John said, his emotions conflicting with each other. She started backing away from him and he said, "Wait."
"Welcome home, John," she said before taking one last step back and disappearing.
That was the main thing that kept poking at him, the second thing was the last thing that Lasky had said to him, before he'd curled up in his shell, not responding to anyone or answering anything.
"You say that...like soldiers and humanity are two different things," Lasky had said. "I mean, soldiers aren't machines. We're just people."
John repeated the saying in his head more times than he could count, and it was finally getting through to him, along with the death of Cortana. He didn't have to carry on like he had been, simply following any order given to him and subjecting to the will of the UNSC, he could live his own life if he wanted. He was only human after all, they would have to allow him to retire, after all he'd done for them, all of the times he'd saved them, killed the Covenant, the Flood, the Forerunners. He made up his mind at that moment, standing over the sink with tears staining his cheeks. He was going to live a life.
He was going to quit the UNSC.
Spike the Dragon had woken up that morning like always, with a stretch, a yawn, and a look over to Twilights bed to confirm that she was already up and about. The thing about this morning though was that she was still asleep, surprising Spike enough for him to consider waking her up and asking why, but he knew that would only cause her to run frantically around the house the minute he did so. Considering the option of missing out on his breakfast, he decided to let her sleep for now, making his way towards the kitchen to eat something before Twilight woke up and made him do chores or something.
When he walked into the kitchen he gave a small sigh, spotting loads of books splayed out across the table. "How many times have I told that mare not to leave her books on the kitchen table," he muttered to himself, picking each one up and stacking them on top of each other, laying them together in a corner of the kitchen. He gave a look at the spines of each one to see what she had been so interested in and noticed that they were each books on astronomy, giving him a bit of a surprise. "Never really thought she'd be interested in astronomy."
Then again, she did acquire new interests in a flash, and he found himself making bets about what her next subject of interest was going to be. After about thirty minutes, Twilight walked into the kitchen and looked speedily about as she asked, "Spike, where did my books go?"
"They're over in the corner," he said, pointing a claw at the corner in question. She nodded and sat down, using her magic to pour a bowl of cereal. Spike decided to ask her the question that had been on his mind since he'd seen those books, "Why the sudden interest in astronomy?"
"Well princess Luna is supposed to be forming constellations in the sky tonight, and I was looking at the kinds she would be doing," Twilight responded.
"By studying in books," he asked. "Not to be rude Twi, but those are the past, it's not like she does the same ones every year."
"Actually she does," Twilight informed him.
"Right," he muttered, "how silly of me."
The two of them finished their breakfast and Twilight hurried off to get her telescope ready, she had some stars she was going to look at tonight.
When John walked into the mission control room, he had full intentions of telling Lasky that he was retiring, but the minute that he saw Lasky's strained expression, his intentions flew out of his mind. "Commander Lasky," he said as he walked up, "what's the matter?"
"This," he said, pointing at the holo-screen in front of him. On it were a bunch of UNSC pelicans surrounding a planet, along with a bunch of Covenant ships. "We've got outnumbered troops near the edge of the beta squadron and we can't go in there because there's too much heat, going in would just doom the entire ship."
"So send me in," John said, "think of it as a final mission before I take my leave."
"You're leaving the UNSC," Lasky asked. "It's about time you got a break from this life. You were put up as a Spartan as a kid after all."
"All the original Spartans were kids," John reminded him.
"But as far as I know, you're the longest surviving one. All the others have been either decommissioned or were KIA," Lasky said. "So you're going to go in there?"
"If it means saving those troops, then yes," John replied.
"What's your plan," Lasky asked him.
John pointed the fact that they were close together and said, "If I can crash one ship into the next, they're close enough that it could cause a chain reaction."
"Could," Lasky asked.
"There's always the chance that this could go wrong," John said as he turned and headed for the door. "I'll be getting on my armour, I want you to get a pod ready for me. Get me in there and I'll finish this."
"Okay Chief," Lasky said.
Ten minutes later and John was armoured up and ready to go, arriving on the deployment deck to find the pod ready and waiting for him, but surprisingly no Lasky. John just shrugged it off, supposing that Lasky had better things to do than escort him off on a final mission. He entered the pod, finding some coordinates already entered in and waiting for him to press the key to send him off. He sat in the seat and pulled the locking bar down, pushing him tight into the seat. He reached out a hand and tapped the enter key, the doors hissing closed behind him, sealing him in the small chamber as he waited for the shuttle to take off, but it didn't seal fast enough to prevent him from hearing Lasky yelling behind him.
"Wait, Chief, the Freelancers-" was all John heard before the door sealed, cutting off all sound.
The rockets started as John tried to get out of the seat, slamming his palm against the bar, trying to get it to release, but failing as the rockets gave one final pulse before flaring to full life and shooting him out the bay doors, through the energy shield and into the void of space. John kept frantically trying to get out, not even knowing what he would do when he did, but hoping he could get something accomplished. But to his dismay, everything was locked.
As if something had planned this entire scenario though, there was a meteor, which managed to slam into the small craft, saving John from whatever fate lay in wait for wherever he had been heading. The impact of the meteor caused the tracking mechanism to malfunction, cutting of the engines subsequently and leaving him stranded in the empty void of space, waiting for something to happen as he drifted from his original course. Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait long.
From the way he was facing, the craft was floating backwards, slowly turning over as it continued, never losing the small amount of speed it had with nothing blocking his new path. As he turned over, he caught sight of a bright light that only grew brighter as the craft rolled over all the way, revealing a bright speck hanging in the middle of his path. John had no idea what it was, but he knew that it couldn't be good. If it was shining that bright then something had to be wrong with it.
The craft turned over again, obscuring his view of the light and leaving him wondering how close it was. He simply waited there, having exhausted all of his options, and watched to see how this would all play out. He passed through the light without harm, he didn't know when, but by the time the shuttle had turned all the way around again the light was gone, leaving him to wonder just what the light was.
There was that glint of light again. Twilight had been looking into the telescope she'd set up for about an hour now, even though the sun was still out and shining. And even though it was still shining, she could see something glint up there in the sky every few minutes, and often in different areas. That was curious enough, but she could easily have brushed it off as Luna getting ready for tonight, but she didn't need practice, even if it had been a thousand years since she'd done this, it was the same routine every year. Now the question bugging Twilight was whether or not to alert Celestia and Luna or just observe it and tell them later. After a few more moments of indecision she finally made a choice.
"Spike, take a letter," she called out, not taking her eye from the telescope. Spike appeared with the quill and note, having only been in the next room, and wrote down what Twilight said, "Dear Princess Luna, it has come to my attention that-"
That was the moment when something crashed into the Everfree Forest, streaking down from the sky at speeds close enough to breaking the sound barrier, crashing into the ground with enough force to cause Twilight to stumble and grab at the edge of the banister to keep from tipping as well as causing Spike to knock a bottle of ink all over him. Something had just crash landed on Equestria. In the Everfree Forest. Twilight made a decision there that she would find out what was going on because more likely than not, that thing that just crashed was to be associated or blamed for the lights in the sky.
And she was going to find out how.
The first think that John actually saw after passing the light were ships. They apparently caught sight of him as well and decided to pull him in, at which John felt enthusiasm. Until he got close enough to actually see the accents of the ships exterior. Spikes covered with different coloured blood and other substances that John couldn't and wouldn't identify, given the chance, covered the exterior of the ships at odd intervals. As he saw those, a sense of dread filled the pit of his stomach. He tried slamming in the lock again, even going so far as to pull out his assault rifle and fire a few bullets into it.
The lock popped free.
John blinked in surprise, lifting the bar and stepping out of the seat, hardly believing his luck. As the shuttle moved closer, John knew that there was no way he was getting out of this without a fight, so he reloaded his gun and settled in the seat, his gun rested on the edge of the seat, aiming at the door. The lock hissed open as the shuttle landed in the dock, and for a minute John wondered whether or not to give them the benefit of the doubt. At least until the flashbang entered the room. John ducked his head below the seat and squeezed his eyes closed, hearing the bang that sent made him deaf, but preventing the flash from reaching his eyes too much. He leaned over the seat again, waiting for somebody to enter the room. He didn't have long to wait.
The first man to enter the room was unarmed and was easily dispatched with a quick burst of bullets. After the first man fell, John knew that he had to move fast or risk being killed. He moved up to the door quickly and peered around the corner, pulling his head back as a bullet struck his overshield and drew a bit of power from it, lowering the meter on his HUD in the helmet a bit. He sprayed a few bullets blindly and rushed out into the large and surprisingly empty hanger. It was only then that John noticed something off and he took a look back to confirm his suspicions.
He was fighting ponies. He was simply confused for a second but was snapped out of it by a bullet impact in the crate he was behind. He focused again on the fight at hand and fired off a few shots in the direction of the shots and ran right behind them, leaping over the cover and burying a bullet in the creature's head, blowing it's brains out of the bottom of its jaw. John continued onwards, leaving the deck with bullets following his heels but missing either way. He ran past a window in the corridor he entered, and caught sight of a planet that resembled Earth and he immediately made plans to get down there, planning to escape using some transport.
"He went this way," a voice shouted as hooves clopped down the hallway ahead.
John looked around and dived into a room, listening as they ran past him and towards the hangar. He quietly moved out of the room and further into the ship, looking for directions towards the escape pods hit finding himself in the control room instead. He looked around and spotted a bunch of ponies sitting at consoles, shouting at each other and pressing buttons as they adjusted things.
"Hey, could anyone tell me where the escape pods are," he asked, hoping no one would look his way.
"Down the hall behind you, take the first left, can't miss it," one of them said, not turning away from his control.
John nodded and turned to walk away, glad that his bet had paid off, but stopped as he heard one of them say, "Be back before we go on the raid though, you wouldn't want to miss this."
"Hey, where's the armory," he asked, knowing that he was pushing his luck, but he wasn't about to just let this planet get ransacked, "you know, just in case I need to defend myself."
"Go out this room and take the first door immediately on the right, take whatever you need, but make sure you put it back later," the same one said, "why, you planning on goi-" he stopped as he caught sight of John. "Red alert, we have an intruder," he shouted before pulling put a pistol and aiming it at John.
An alarm was set off as John ducked out of the room, hiding behind the door frame as bullets flew from inside the room. John found himself right up against the door to the armoury, slamming it open quickly and slipping inside, closing it quickly and jamming it closed with a metal rod. He quickly picked over the supplies they had, pulling out a couple of packets of C4 as well as a remote detonator. He slipped his assault rifle into its holder on his back and picked up a chain gun, the box of bullets attached containing about two hundred bullets.
He turned around, making a move towards the door but stopping as it blew inwards, slamming into the wall opposite him. He revved up the chain gun, firing round after round into each pony that tried to enter the room, a pile of bodies quickly forming as each bullet slammed into a body, releasing a steam of blood as well as tearing them to pieces and breaking apart bones. John pressed forward, firing at everything that moved was he picked his way over the remains of the bodies, forcing his way into the control room and slamming the door closed behind him after he'd cleared the room, staining the gray walls red. He carefully placed the C4 on a few select consoles and even laid one on the window, linking them to the trigger in his hand wirelessly.
He kicked the door down rather than opening it, blinking once in surprises he took stock of a hallway empty other than the numerous dead bodies. Then he realized what they had done. Somebody who heard him ask about the escape pods had heard and now they were more likely than not lying in wait. He slowly made his way to where they were stored and stopped outside the door, picking off a frag grenade from his belt, releasing the pin and tossing it in. The grenade went off and John walked into the room, moving down wave after wave of attacker as his shield took the damage. He only got back into cover once his shield hit critical, pulling out his assault rifle and blindly firing around the corner as he waited for it to recharge.
There were too many of them, he noticed that as soon as he peered around the corner. He only had one last option to escape this death trap. He was suddenly glad that he'd brought a jetpack with him and he activated it now, allowing it to settle on his back as it expanded from its smaller size. He took the trigger in his hand and pressed down on the red button, flaring his jetpack to life as the control room of the ship exploded, releasing the oxygen in a steady stream as it was sucked into the void of space. The emergency oxygen in his suit cut in and kept him from suffocating like the rest of the crew and he rushed through the dying crowd, leaping onto a pod and closing the hatch, setting the drive for manual and pressing the launch button.
The energy on his pack ran out right as he entered the pod and he shrugged it off his shoulders as the pod took off. He managed to keep control of the craft for about half a minute before another explosion rocked the ship, sending pieces of debris flying directly for the pod and sending him spiraling right down towards the planet, beginning to burn up as he entered the atmosphere. John took notice that the craft was heading right for a forest before he finally passed out from the force pressing down on him as he sped towards the planet.
John first recovered his sense of hearing, the sounds reaching his ears muffled through the exterior of the escape pod and the, more likely than not, broken helmet he wore which offered him no help. He managed to move his arms, making to pull off the helmet, but stopped as a sudden flare of pain ran through his right arm and he let it drop to the side while trying to keep his breathing even and easy. His vision came back last, the hazy black spots disappearing in patches to reveal a giant crack running down the face of his orange visor. He slumped back into the chair for a few minutes as he wondered what exactly had gone wrong, Lasky's last words running through his head.
"Freelancers...what do you think Cor...," he suddenly drifted off, remembering once again that she was no longer with him. You've got to stop talking to yourself like she's still there, he thought to himself.
He reached with his left hand to pull off his helmet and only realized how quiet it was once the latch on the helmet clicked, leaving him in the silence he hadn't noticed had fallen. He got up as silently as he could and cringed when the plates on his suit scratched against each other. He pulled out his assault rifle with his left hand, wondering just how much damage he could do to whatever was out there using the wrong hand. He carefully tread over to the doorway and stopped before it, wondering exactly what the best way to proceed would be, to go in guns blazing or hope that whatever it was out there could speak English.
Before he could decide though the choice was made for him in the form of a purple aura surrounding the door and wrenching it off its hinges. John lifted the gun up to eye level and crouched, hiding his right arm behind his body, sitting there for what seemed to be an eternity before a small face peered around the corner, examining the compartment, the creature's eyes landing and stopping on John. They both stood there for a good five minutes, John taking in the creature's purple fur, horn, and dark purple and pink hair and the creature taking in his closely shaved head of dark hair, the scars covering his face and the crooked nose, suggesting that it had been broken once before, her eyes resting on the weapon in his hand, calculating what exactly it was.
Their eyes met and the creature let out a timid, "Hello."
"Hi," he replied, still not lowering the weapon.
"Are you responsible for the lights in the sky," the feminine voice asked.
"They were actually explosions," John replied.
The creature studied him for a few more seconds before saying, "I'm Twilight, Twilight Sparkle."
John was silent for a good thirty seconds before lowering the gun and replying, "John." Twilight took that as an invitation to get closer and she came fully around the doorway, revealing how small she really was. "So where am I," he asked.
"You're on Equestria. Now I suppose it's my turn to ask a question, right? What are you?"
"I'm a human. What are you?"
"A unicorn...what's a human?"
John was silent as her reply sank in, bringing back the stories he'd heard as a kid from his mother. "It's a species that originated on Earth," he replied.
The purple unicorn stared at him for a few more seconds before pulling her gaze away to stare at someone else who had arrived. "Where have you been, Spike," she asked, staring at the little beast that had arrived.
John shifted his gaze to the creature that had entered the pod and raised the gun again, aiming it at it. "What is that thing," he asked.
"Hey, this thing has a name," the creature said.
"He's a dragon," Twilight explained, either not noticing or not reacting to the choice of naming John had used. "Spike, this is John, he's a human. John, this is my assistant Spike."
"So he's not a hostile," John asked, lowering the gun a little.
"Hostile," Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, Spike is a friend," Twilight assured him. John let the gun drop fully and sat back onto his ass, grunting as his right arm shifted and sent a bolt of pain up his arm. Twilight caught sight of his quick discomfort and moved closer as she asked, "Are you alright?"
"I don't think so," he replied, bringing his arm around stiffly. "Something happened to my right arm and it hurts a bit."
"Maybe we should take a look at it," Twilight responded, getting closer and ignoring the protests of the baby dragon.
John glanced at the distance between them, now reduced to a few inches, before taking his armour off, trying not to jerk his arm too much as he pulled it off section by section and loosened it until he could pull the chest plate and the arm coverings off, leaving him in his undershirt along with the armour still on his legs. He turned his attention to the arm that was painting him and caught sight of a small piece of shrapnel buried in his forearm.
"That doesn't look too good," Twilight observed, just barely holding back from poking and prodding at the wound from what John could tell after spending years with scientists studying him on a daily basis.
"I've suffered worse," John replied as he thought of what he'd need to get the piece out.
"Here, let me help you with that," Twilight said, her features becoming a bit strained as she focused on the wound.
John was about to voice an argument that she didn't have any tools but snapped his mouth closed as Twilight's horn lit up, the shrapnel slowly coming out, aided by the aura that had also yanked off the door. Twilight set the bloody metal on the ground and turned back to the wound, her horn growing brighter than it had been for a moment and blinding John, the light quickly dimming to reveal the wound in his arm gone.
"What was..." John trailed off, not during how to phrase his question.
"You don't know about magic where you come from," Twilight asked.
"There aren't even any unicorns there, much less dragons," John replied, casting another wary glance as Spike.
"What about Pegasi or alicorns," Twilight asked.
"You have...flying horses here? What planet have I landed on," John asked, finally letting himself relax completely.
"It's inhabitants just call it Equus," she replied. "Most of us at least."
"So you guys haven't decided on a name of the planet?"
"Oh no, the princesses have, but other species, such as dragons, manticores, and changelings, argue with them."
"Right, well I really ne-"
John was cut off as two figures suddenly landed in the crater caused by the shuttle, visible through the doorway, causing John to scramble up and grab his gun and aim it at the figures, switching between the two of them at a rapid pace. One was pure white with a head of flowing hair that contained blue, pink, and green and had a horn and wings; the other was a dark blue, also with a horn and pair of wings, and had hair that flowed just like the other's but looked like it contained the night sky. He shifted his gaze from the two figures for a second and glanced at Twilight, seeing the confused look on her face before switching his gaze back to the two newcomers. He noticed that while the white one looked just about as oblivious to what was in his hand as Twilight and Spike, the dark blue one seemed to recognize the weapon in his hands.
"Where did you get that," it asked, it's gaze moving up and down his body, as if measuring him for what he could accomplish.
"This one's mine. Why, are you worried about that ship in the sky, because let me tell you, it's history," he said, choosing to focus the gun on it.
"Luna, What ship is he talking about," the white one asked.
"Hold on," Twilight said, "I think we're all getting off on the wrong hoof here."
John had to hold back a laugh as he heard their version of that expression.
"I agree," the white one replied. "I apologize for me and my sister's impoliteness. I am Celestia and this is my sister and co-ruler Luna. Who and what might you be?"
John let the gun drop a little after meeting Twilight's eyes and seeing the almost pleading look in her eyes. "I'm John," he replied, "and I'm a human, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"It is indeed. Now tell me, What exactly is that device in your hands," Celestia said, curiously studying it from where she was.
John finally stopped aiming the gun at them and said, "I think your sister may be able to explain it better than me because I don't know how much of it would make sense to you."
Although when they all turned their attention to Luna she hadn't seemed to hear a word spoken, stuck on something stated earlier.
"Umm, princess," Twilight said, waving a hoof in Luna's eyes.
"She seems to be in shock abo-"
"YOU KILLED THEM," Luna yelled at John, cutting off Celestia.
"Hey, they attacked me first," John argued immediately.
"Wait, who are we talking about," Twilight asked.
"Those lights you saw in the sky, that was a ship full of...some faction who decided to try and take me prisoner," John said, keeping his eyes steadily trained on Luna.
"You murdered an entire ship," Luna argued.
"Of raiders," John replied. "Who else decorates their ship in such a vulgar fashion?"
"They were my friends," Luna said, stomping up to John and getting in his face.
"Luna, you will cease these foalish actions at once," Celestia said, sounding horrified at the display.
"No sister, he is dangerous," Luna argued, not taking her furious gaze off John. "I vote that we toss him into sp-"
There was a flash and suddenly both Celestia and Luna were gone, leaving Twilight, John, and Spike alone in the pod.
"That was...odd," Spike said.
"Luna has never blown up like that before," Twilight said.
"Maybe it was her time of the month," John joked.
Twilight turned her gaze on John and glared while Spike simply gave him a blank look.
"John, I will not listen to you talk about my princess like that," Twilight said.
"Oh, sorry Twilight," John replied sincerely. "So where did they go exactly?"
"Celestia probably teleported them back to the castle to have a talk with Luna," she replied.
"What exactly are they, because last time I checked, unicorns didn't have wings and a pegasus didn't have a horn."
"They're alicorns," Spike spoke up, "they have the traits of all three races."
"Three," John asked.
"Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies," Twilight replied. "I have a book on all four races if you'd like to read up about them."
"Well actually I think I'd much rather get started on repairing this pod so I can get back the the Infinity," John replied, adding onto it when they gave him blank looks. "It's the ship I was on before all this happened."
"Well I'm sorry to say that this thing will never do whatever it was supposed to do again," Twilight said sheepishly, "for starters it's too beat up and I kinda...broke the door."
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that," John said with a little humor in his voice.
"How about you come back to my house for right now and we'll see about fixing this later," Twilight offered.
"Yeah, that might be a bit of a problem," John said, "if the rest of the world is as small as you are then I doubt I would he able to get anywhere without being too big."
"Oh...oh!" Twilight exclaimed, "I know the perfect spell."
She closed her eyes in concentration and ignored John's words of objection as her horn lit up and an aura surrounded John, slowly shrinking him until he was finally her height.
John gave a small shudder as his stomach stopped flipping and he turned his gaze to Twilight, finally eye level with her, and said, "Don't ever do that to me again."
"Oh come on, you'll be thanking me soon enough, now let's go," she said, "it's getting dark and we're already deep enough in the Everfree that we probably won't be out until sundown."
"Just let me get the rest of my armour off," John said, setting to the task of loose ing his leggings and pulling them off, leaving him in the short and shorts he wore under the armour. Once he was done he moved to the doorway, pausing a moment to taken note of how large it was now before continuing on.
Twilight quickly followed after him and took the lead, allowing Spike to catch up and get on her back.
"So you killed an entire ship," Spike said, turning around and facing John. "You must be an excellent fighter then."
"The best there is," John replied. "I'm known as Sierra-117 by the UNSC, or just Chief, but by different cultures I'm called many different things."
"Sounds interesting," Spike said. "So what did you fight for?"
"Many things," John said with a small laugh. "I fought for what's right, I fought to protect, I fought for..." Parisa.
"Spike why don't you let him think about how he's going to get home," Twilight said, turning her head and giving John a wink.
"Okay Twilight," Spike replied, turning around again on her back.
The rest of the walk continued on in silence as the question of how he'd get back to the Infinity bounced about his head, accompanied by many others. Unnoticed by any of them was the glint up in the sky.
