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Redemption
Posted By: Firestarian<ianbossler@yahoo.com>
Date: 20 November 2011, 1:14 am
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NOTE this is not finished! I am still working on it and will update it weekly!
A note from Fire- Alright guys, I'm not even sure If I plan on releasing this but if I do, than please don't judge me, it's more of a personal goal than a physical one. So, cheers mate.
Prologue
You never appreciate something until it's gone
Cassandra-075 2525 Spartan-II augmentation
Liquid fire exploded throughout Cassandra-075's veins. It was as if the content of hell's lakes filled her veins, millions of glass bottles shattering inside of her. Not even in her worst nightmares had she expected this, something that she could not have been prepared for. The moment the needles injected their contents with into her neck, the world went fuzzy. The small sterile room and the medical personnel became distant, the sound distorted as if it was underwater, the world shook in time with her heart's irregular beat. She clenched her teeth, felt her body go rigid, and shut her eyes. It felt like someone had a branding iron inside of her, pushing through everything, toying with her. Dr. Halsey had told them this would be the hardest part of becoming a Spartan, she hadn't lied, as much as Cassandra wished she had. She prayed for the sweet release of death within her only safe sanctuary, her mind.
She did something she hadn't done since she entered training, she cried. She hadn't shown any emotion when they had kidnapped her, when Dr. Halsey said that they would never go home, never see their family. Not when she had been forced to run thirty miles the first day, or after the countless times she had been struck with a baton. She was only vaguely aware of the tears as they traveled across her face and over her clenched mouth. The pain slowly began to dull, she ran though the possibilities in her head, either they had given her something for the pain, unlikely she would have felt something. The process might be ending, which is what she wanted to be true. Her brain was slow, thinking took longer than it should have. When she opened her eyes again, there was a certain darkness playing with the edge of her vision. The blackness slowly but steadily overcame the light. She vaguely heard a man yell, "We're losing her, hypodermic needle, now!" A woman replied, even more distant than the man, "We aren't supposed to interfere, Halsey warned us remember?" The darkness closed around her, releasing her from the pain. The last thing she heard was merely more than a whisper, "To hell with Halsey, this girl is 14 dammit." Cassandra stopped fighting the pull,closed her eyes, and fell into the eternal void. It was like a warm blanket, the inside of a hot baked potato, it spelled safety, freedom from this living hell.
Cassandra opened her eyes, she looked up to the starry sky. The eternal blue heavens reached down to her, it's endless stars stared back, calming her. The relief of pain was so astounding that Cassandra's spirit reached up to soar with the birds, she was back on Reach, where she had lived and trained for eight long years. She wasn't in a tin-can floating in orbit, she wasn't lying in a small room breathing through a tube. She was home, where the birds flew high and free, her heart radiated with joy. She heard footfalls behind her, she knew it was John. No one else walked with such contained caution.
" What will happen next?" She let out a sigh as she lied down on the soft grass. The world bloomed with life, trees grew and entangled each others long branches, birds flew through the night sky, far off an own screeched it's farewell. The weather was crisp, with a warm breeze.
He didn't reply as laid down next to her. They were both only fourteen but with the bodies of an Olympic winners and minds brighter than the U.N.S.Cs best militant strategists. His hair was cropped short, maybe only an inch and a half long. His face was thin, and if you were ever lucky enough to catch him smiling, his face was as sly as a fox. His dirty blonde hair was short but his brown eyes were what took your breath away. When they weren't focused on a goal, they were tender and promised protection. Cassandra had the longest hair of all the Spartans, it fell to her shoulders in a delicate manner. It was jet black, and was a bitch to get in a helmet. Her eyes were a deep green, she was the best judge of character. Just by looking in your eyes she could tell a traitor from a friend. She was quiet and only opened up to people she trusted. When they had taken her, she had been shaved bald by one of the handlers, it had been terrible. It was the first day and after the 23rd consecutive mile of the race, she had stopped. The descended on her, saying maybe the hair was making it too hard. She took only a small amount of pride being one of the best looking Spartans, with suppressed sex drives, it didn't matter.
There were bigger battles to fight, and more important goals.
" Who knows? With the only trouble being a very small amount of organized rebels, maybe we can go home one day. Live life for ourselves, the ups and downs, all of it."
The idea of freedom, to live life beyond Reach, it was staggering. She remembered very little of her life before she was kidnapped to be a spartan. She had lived on Luna, with her mom and dad. Her dad was always gone, but her mom gave her hope. Cheered her up when life was stabbing her in the back.
" But that's just it, what about us? We've lived the past eight years with less than one hundred people, the same people day after day. What will become of us, when we are free to live through." She put extra emphasis on the word us. John and her always had a special connection. He was stronger and faster but she was smarter. While the boys played grav ball or capture the flag, she would be the one on the side, using her data pad or her favorite activity, drawing. Some days she felt as if she would just leave. Perhaps like Daisy and Ralph and Joseph did. All the Spartans had been flash cloned, which promptly died of natural causes. Her family thought she was dead, that was one of the things that kept her up at night.The most important talent of hers though, was the element of compassion. Life had been terrible for all the new Spartans in the first 3 or 4 years, they're time alone were what made it bearable.
When John became a squad leader, things became more complicated, his desire to win took over his life. To him, life was all one game, the only way to go, is to win. He spent all of his time training, he blew her off to spar with Fred or Sam. She was just the pile of rubbish, rotting on the side on the court. Always there, but only acknowledged when he wanted.
"I don't know, but all of this, the 8 years of experience, life will be unique for us. Who knows?"
The autumn day flowed on, the meadow bloomed with life, the oaks around them turned orange with a dying glance. This was the first time they had set down and talked, been themselves, for months.
"Wherever the world takes us, I want to be with you John" she let her muscles relax. She looked to the right of her, where John had been lying next to her less than a second ago, he was gone.
She was on fire. That was the only thought in her head as she took in her first gasp for air. The world around her was dull, blurs franticly worked around her. She felt as if she had stuck her hand on a stove burner, except every inch of her skin burned. She felt something being pulled out of her heart, the hypodermic needle pulled out painlessly, most likely due to it being the least of her pains.
"Doctor, what's happening to her skin, this wasn't supposed to happen!" the female voice said once again.
"Some kind of chemical reactant with her skin, go get Halsey, she might have a counter-injection." Cassandra heard footsteps walking briskly across the cement floor.
As she tried to get an image of the world around her, she felt two things. Fire, directly under her skin, searing away at the soft insides of her organs, she also felt something wet, hot but not strikingly so. In her pain ravaged mind, it was bliss. She tried to move her hands but couldn't. The unknown source of the liquid bothered her, she was considering her IV bad dripping when it hit her. The liquid was HER, her skin really was burning, like candle wax from a candle.
She screamed, she let every last curse and insult out of her. She screamed until her lungs gave out, until all she was left with were her sobs. The medical staff were doing what they could to help but the truth was, they didn't know what was happening. One of the squezzed her hand, just to let her know that she wasn't alone. She heard crying in the background, soft methodical, female and full of fury and sorrow at the same time. The pain began to drip away but only slightly so. She stopped crying and just listened to the room, to the people. Her eyes no longer worked, she couldn't feel herself, she didn't know if she was dead or not. Whatever it was, it was welcomed.
A slamming door brought her back to reality, but only slightly so, she heard high heels striking the cement, making a steady CLAK CLAK.
Cassandra heard Dr. Halsey's voice, smooth and calming.
"Have you stopped the injections?" she asked the technicians, without seeing, Cassandra knew Halsey wasn't looking at her.
"Ye-yes we lost her, the injections are 70% deposited" The man trembled, it was obvious that he feared Dr. Halsey. Dr. Halsey had always take a liking to Cassandra, always cut her a small amount of slack, it was thanks to her that her hair was allowed over regulation.
"Continue the injections, get the paddles ready in case you lose her again." Cassandra was abashed, the Doctor was her friend, she wouldn't condemn her- she couldn't. She felt tears brimming the edges of her eyes, threatening to burst free. She heard the medical personnel coming towards her, getting the injections ready. She did what little she could to brace herself for the pain to return. It was like being hit with a bus,no a train. Her body shook with what energy it had left. She screamed with renewed energy.
"I'm so sorry Cassandra, for all of this" she managed to choke out. The Dr.'s voice cracked, as if she was crying. Her body slowly began even more unresponsive as her cells continued to burn, her nerves stayed alive though because she felt everything. She felt unconsciousness pulling on her, as if it was gold floating over a freeway.
Dr. Halsey pulled a stray hair out of Cassandra's eye. The girl was peaceful as she slept, all of the Spartans were, it was the only time they could truly be children. She would have given anything to have helped Cassandra, to give her peace, but ONI had given her tight orders to get as many Spartans as possible. The Spartan-II project was her idea but it was ONI who pulled it all out of proportion. It was they who gave her the funding, and the orders to collect the children. As much as Dr. Halsey hated what she had done, the universe needed soldiers. One day, she would let the Spartans achieve inner piece, that is if any survived today.
Dr. Halsey couldn't imagine what Cassandra felt like right now, what little skin she had left was angry red, and it burned before her. It was the molecular structure of her integementary system, the muscular enhancement counteracted with the unique molecules in her skin. Her skin was breaking itself apart, melting without cause. The reason she had the augmentation continue was that while the same genetic makeup caused her skin to boil off, it also made several of the augmentations have an increase of two to five fold, or her readings were incorrect and Halsey had just sentenced a young girl to death. But if they were correct, than she would be very unique.
Halsey stroked her hair, her nimble fingers untangling matted knots. When her hand came away, it was covered in hair and blood. Cassandra had always been one of the better looking Spartans and it was a shame to see her beautiful hair fall out. Dr. Halsey quickly scanned the room, saw a Styrofoam cup with cold coffee. She picked it up and walked briskly away. She drank the bland drink walked towards the cafeteria. If she stayed with the Spartans any longer, she would have stopped the augmentations.
(NOTE- YEAH THIS PART IS KINDA BORING BUT IT GETS MORE EXCITING TRUST ME!)
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