When Destiny Burns, Ep. 1: A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover

Chapter 10. 1 Fickle loyalty

"Yes, these drugs, combined with a certain mutagen, definitely have a new effect on the frontal lobe. It enhances the aggressive response to dangerous levels. Its effects are...there. At a point where a battle-hardened veteran ODST falls into coma, loses consciousness or dies, one augmented with this drug will still be able to fight. They are imperious to shock, coma and other altered states of consciousness, excluding sleep. And possibly dreams. Hell, these drugs make them fight to a point where regular SPARTAN-II 's will long have perished! But the side-effects are worse. Failure to keep up a regular dose of the anti-drugs will result in the afore-mentioned brain damage, but also in uncontrollable aggression."

Mental Health Specialist Sunfield, logbook entry 4 ½, , 24th of August 2552

The surroundings were...familiar. He was walking in the same misty region he had visited before. He had been here before. The ground was the same as it had been before; stained by a dark, red liquid that was way too viscous to be true liquid. The thick layer of sky was also the same...but the air was all wrong, feeling eerie and dark and too heavy to be possible. He was naked; no MJOLNIR and no weapons. Not even a combat knife. Just him and his body, stuck in a dark landscape that seemed to resent him. Voices were calling out to him, screaming and crying and too high-pitched to be adult-

The Spartan shot upright with a start and immediately drew his pistol, sweeping it around and searching for targets before his mind could even process that he was awake. Once he realized that he had been dreaming again and that the area was...moderately secure...he allowed himself to relax slightly. Aeraleth was sleeping in the corner and Raia was nowhere to be seen. He didn't really have anything that could help indicate how long he had slept, as he was still inside a mountain...inside a mountain.

He still couldn't really believe that he had spent thirteen days away from the UNSC, on a world inhabited by real dragons and real elves and real dwarves. It just didn't make sense...it was impossible. But it was there, right in front of him. Magic and telepathy...all was real. He worked with it and he killed with it. But...it was impossible. It couldn't be real, he had to be drugged or something like that. Or at least...all the impossible things still had to have a scientific explanation. Because at that point, only advanced bio-engineering could explain things like magic...things like Raia and Arya.

The Spartan rose to his feet and looked over at the place where his bonded dragon was sleeping. She had looked like she was fast asleep, but the moment he got to his feet she lazily opened one eye and watched him.

'Good morning little soldier,' she told him. 'Finally awake?'

Finally awake? How long had he slept? "How long was I out?"

The dragoness chuckled. It was a deep, rumbling noise that came out of her throat and it took the soldier a while to understand the meaning of both the sound and the gesture. The voice he could interpret as humor...the gesture behind the humor not. Had he said something funny? 'By my count? At least the entire day. It is night outside now.'

That statement was surprising. "How do you know?"

'I can feel it.'

'Right,' he thought sarcastically, 'and I can smell it.'

'So, what now?' she asked. 'What shall we do, now that you are rested?'

He took a deep breath in, felt that his limbs didn't shake anymore and then exhaled. No nausea, no dizziness and no aggressive desire to kill everything that he saw. He was good to go and if he looked at his partner, she was ready to go too. She had grown another feet since he had last judged her height. "The urgals should be gone, the Varden should be organized. Time to find Ajihad and ask some questions."