Halo: The Dunes of 2560

Chapter 12: Part 1: Chief Architect

David and Red waited outside the room Osa and Khyvo were in, hoping he doesn't kill Khyvo. Red gave a glance to David before turning, "What do you think he is?" David gulped, he felt a pit in his throat form, "I have a feeling that Khyvo, is some sort of Hybrid, or maybe an Android. My knowledge about Sangheili is limited, I won't lie. If you want a more informed answer, ask someone like Trent." Red walked down the hall, David crossed his arms, "Red!" He stopped and looked back at David, "Yeah?" "I might need to leave soon. Depending on Osa's state, you or him will be in charge."

Osa sat down and had his face cupped in his hands, Khyvo was still tied up in the chair, "Osa, you and I, we share the same purgatory." He looked up at him, "I feel that, but we aren't alike. I'm not a killer like you." Khyvo recoiled, "You're assuming something you know nothing about." Osa shook his head, "You're telling me you've never killed anybody?" He laughed, "No Osa, I didn't say that. I know you have though, I can see it in your eyes. I can sense it in your behavior, you act differently than the others." Osa gulped, "If you return to the SFA, will they kill you?" He nodded, "I know too much, nothing I can really do."

Osa walks out of the room, motioning to David, he follows him back into the room. Osa put his hands on his hips, "He's ratting out the SFA to us, and they know. If we send him back to them, he's going to be killed. Do we accept him as one of us?" David looked over at Khyvo, "If we let you out, will you show us whats with... that?" He points to Khyvo's strangely human looking legs, he looks down, "They are robotic, not human. I'm Sangheili from the waist up. You can remove the Spartan armor to see for yourself, I don't mind."

They tied his hands up after letting out of the chair, and removed his Spartan armor. He wasn't lying, his legs were robotic. He was lying down on the floor, they noticed some metal parts up his torso, and around his neck, David poked at these parts, "What are these for pal?" He squirmed, "Injectors going into my veins for chemicals and drugs, helping numb pain, temporarily increasing my physical capabilities, or significantly boosting my reaction times. They hurt, so stop touching them." Osa pinched one of the metal bars, he grunted loudly, he moved his hand away from Khyvo, "We should feed our guest. You can eat right?" He nods.

Khyvo scarfed down a bowl of rice, they all sat and watched him carefully, waiting. He pushed the bowl forward, and looked around, "Why are you all so strangely attentive?" Candy grabbed the bowl, "Not sure, someone like Trent or David would say a morbid curiosity. I like to think it's more like... well, personally, I want to understand better." Khyvo nodded, "Legs were just cut off, they did all this work on me themselves. I have no trauma over the mutilation of my body because I felt nothing. It's my normal. Unlike Osa." Candy gets up and brings the bowl to the sink in the kitchen while attention at the table went to Osa, he sighed, "I don't know what you mean." He leaned back, "Fine, I'll tell them. You see, he's not normal. None of you are. You all have been heavily profiled, to the point they know everything about all of you, going all the way back to when you were all conceived. Osa, your profile fits in with mine, we are both under the same distinguished project. As for the rest of you, you all fall under other compartmentalized classifications." David's heart sank, "Mind explaining a bit further?" He looked at Osa, "Number 19 was home of one of the UNSC's biggest genetics manipulation project. Me and you Osa, we are part of the same project, which is called Schrödinger's Sangheili. The project was to develop ways for a new race of Sangheili that can be adaptive to extreme conditions, situations, and environments. Unable to move past an unmovable wall? Well, we can move it, by becoming an unstoppable force."

Khyvo was tired so they let him go to sleep in an open room, David had to leave the ship to go to a court hearing on Earth. Trent had been rather quiet throughout the situation, but he was collecting as much information as he could, he approached Pilot, "Hey, I have to ask you something." He turned to Trent, "What is it?" Trent looked down at him in his seat, "Do you ever feel anything?" He was looking up at Trent, then looked down, "My earliest memory is of screaming, and the sound of machinery, the screams sound like my voice, so I guess that might be akin to feeling, right?" Trent looked at him with intense focus, "Okay, thank you Pilot."