Halo: Awake and Alive (Book 2, Arbiter x Female human series.)

Darkness

Bria kneeled on the ground. She didn't look in her sister's face.

"That was horrible..." she whispered.

"You need to see the other path." Beth said.

Bria sighed. How could it be any worse than what she just saw? Bria stood up and looked at her sister. In a blink of an eye, they were in a cave. It was very dark, with only a hint of a purple glow. Bria couldn't see a thing.

"What am I looking at, Beth?" Bria strained her eyes to try and see anything in the darkness.

Beth snapped her fingers, which lit up the room for them. The sight made Bria sick. On the caves were pools of blood from different species. In the midst of the blood stood herself covered in the same blood. Her eyes were glowing and her hands were on fire.

"Stop Beth. This isn't a joke." Bria gasped. It disgusted her.

"And I'm not joking." Beth looked straight ahead. "This is the opposite path that I showed you previously. This life is a good life, though there are so many ups and downs. That blood is the blood of your loved ones. Everyone you love is gone. But you have wealth. You also have envy, greed, and pride. You kill people for a living."

"I would never do that!" Bria spat out.

"It's not for you to decide now, but when you wake up."

They suddenly appeared back in the white room.

"Why did you show me this?" Bria asked her.

"I showed it to you, to warn you." Beth replied. "When you wake up your choices will determine your future. Will you be the savior? Or the destruction of the world? The temptation is real. Faith is real. It's all based on the choices you make."

Bria pondered that for a minute. "Will you wake up with me?" She asked.

"I'm at peace." Beth said.

Bria sighed and kneeled down.

"What do you want, Bria?" Beth asked.

Bria thought about it. And closed her eyes imagining the first path. "I... I want peace. I want to help people. I want to be safe with my loved ones." She gritted her teeth and opened her eyes. "I want Kyle's blood in my hands."

"Light or darkness?"
"Justice or crime?"
"Good or evil?"
"Heaven or hell?"
"Love or hate?"
"Suffering or freedom?"

It was time. Bria had a choice to make.

Cassie and Buck searched many places for the Arbiter. Cassie was starting to get frustrated. Where the heck could he be?

"Miss?" She heard her good friend Travis.

"Oh. It's you." Cassie smiled.

"Are you looking for something? You look troubled and lost." He said.

"Have the seen the... the uh Arbiter I guess his name is?" She said.

"Oh. The leader of the swords?" He said. "Welp, last time I saw him, he was training."

Of course the one spot she didn't look.

"Thanks. Buck!" She screamed his name.

"Easy there. I have old eardrums ya know?" Buck scratched one of his ears.

"I know where he is now. Thank you, Travis!" Her and Buck sprinted towards the training gym.

And what do you know? He was there swinging an energy sword at a half-destroyed training dummy.

"Hey!" Cassie said.

In a blink of an eye, his energy sword was right by the temple of her head.

"Seriously?" She yelled.

"What do you want, human?" He seemed angry as well.

"You want to try being nice for once so I can share what I found out?" She crosses her arms over her chest.

"I'm listening." He said and took the energy sword away.

"I may have found out how to cure uh..." she looked at Buck before saying her name. "Her..." She said.

He froze and looked at her.

"The hybrid." She simply said.

"The dude we've been hunting?" Buck said.

"What about him?" Thel replied.

"I took a tiny spec of the hybrids dried blood from her clothes and I did some experiments on it." She pulled up some screenshots of the DNA on a tablet. "It's incredible and not like any other medicine we have. This can be the cure." She said.

"How can you be sure?" Thel replied.

"Because of this..." she pulled up some more screenshots of a wound on Bria's body. "This cut on her arm needed stitches, but I mixed the dry blood to make it liquid again, and poured it on the wound. It healed it instantly."

"But it could only work on wounds. How can you be sure it could entirely heal her?" Buck said.

"Because I've tried it on other wounds. Mine included it did nothing. And now I may turn into a hybrid myself." She muttered to herself.

Thel still seemed skeptical. She didn't blame him though.

"What do we have to lose?" She said.

"So we slaughter him and bring his blood back?" He said.

"No, we need him alive." She said. "Dead blood could possibly do the opposite effect with her."

"Impossible." Buck scoffed.

"Come on. How bad could this guy be?" She said.

Buck and Thel looked at each other.

"You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Look I don't care if we have to lock him up or tie him to a chair. We need to get him as soon as possible. She could die any second." She said.

"This is a suicide mission." Thel said. "But I'll do it for her." He looked at Bria.

"Great!" Cassie clapped her hands together. "Where was he last located?"