Hearts On The Front Line (Halo Fanfiction)

"I'll Always Have Your Back."

I remember sitting on my porch that day. Playing with a few toys I begged my mother to get after seeing it on the TV. Looking up, I saw a boy, a little bit younger than me. Tattered clothes, some dirty on his face. At the time I didn't know the truth, just thought he hasn't taken a bath in a while. Being the friendly child I was, I asked him if he wanted to play, holding a green power ranger towards him. He didn't speak much at the time, I soon found out he was four and I, five. After a bit my mother came out of the house to call me for dinner. That night I remember seeing blue and red lights fill my room through the window as I laid in my bed.

A few weeks had passed and I hadn't seen my new friend in a while. Then one day, I was playing outside again with my toys. I had a new one so I was excited to play with it. Once again I looked up, and there he was. He looked the same as before, just different clothes. Like last time, we played with my new toys, I was most excited to show him the new red ranger I had. I remember after dinner that day, my mother told me we had a new family member. Once I saw who it was, I didn't have any objections. In fact I was more excited than a kid going on a bounce house for the first time. It was the same boy from before, my new brother, as my mom put it. 

I was 13 now. My mother died the year before so I had been living with my father and my brother. It wasn't bad, until I found out the truth about my mother. I cried that day, it was just me and my brother in some strangers home. My father behind bars. It was alright, I had my brother with me.

17. A few years ago things took a downward spiral. My brother got into it with some bad people, we were short on money so I got a job. Apparently he did too, just not a good one. We ran into the woods one day, gunshots behind us. I remember falling from exhaustion, I turned and saw my brother sitting against a tree. I got up a bit shakily and got to him. He was scared, terribly scared. I remember telling him these words as I placed my bloody hands on his shoulders. "I'll always have your back." I then noticed I still had the knife in my hand, the blade dripping blood onto his shoulder and down his arm. We got up and ran into the darkness of the woods, we survived.

21 years-old, one day that year really stuck with me. It was the day I met her, also the day my brother saved me. I remember walking home with my brother from work, we worked at some auto mechanic place a few miles from where we stayed. On the way home that night, we saw this girl get dragged into an alley way. She was pleading to be realised in her screams. We ran down the alley way and saw a man. I ran at him and tackled him. Struggling for a bit, he ended up on top of me. Then he pulled something from his goodie jacket, a pistol that gleamed in the dim moonlight of the alley. He took aim at my head, but before he pulled the trigger, my brother put him in a choke hold dragging him off me. He dropped the gun as he did so. The man pushed my brother off and pulled a switchblade and ran towards me. I was still on the ground trying to get to my feet. My heart raced and thumped, almost like the hard rumble of race cars driving by. Then a gun shot went off. The man fell to the ground dead, my brother's figure emerged from behind him, gun in hand. "You good man?" He asked me. As I stood up, moving my feet from underneath the guy. "Yeah...yeah I'm fine.." I said a bit softly. "Thanks.." I looked at him, he was panting slightly but the look in his eyes was something else. It showed a sense of bravery, a sense of the want to protect. Even though his expression was terrified, his eyes said it all. "I'll always have your back man." He said.

A shotgun blast brought me out of my thoughts. An elite fell before me, dead. Emerging from behind him was Crimson, he looked at me as he loaded a new shell into the gun. "You good man?" He asked. "Yeah...yeah I'm fine, just spaced out.." I nodded slightly and looked around seeing a few dead grunts. "Thanks for the save man." Crimson nodded and walked with the shotgun on his shoulder. "No worries man, I'll always have your back remember?" I nodded and chuckled silently to myself following him. "Same to you bro." Epsilon waved us over from down the road. "Hey, you guys done playing patty cake? C'mon we're almost there." Me and Crimson nodded and jogged towards Epsilon, catching up to him. "It's just up ahead guys. We're about to step into some shit." Epsilon said as he pulled the bolt on his sniper, releasing an empty shell. I made sure my gun was loaded before putting it up slightly and walked forward..