Sirens blare overhead. Red light pulsed in and out of existence as large white spotlights raked their way over the barren grey/purple ground. In the distance gouts of whie mist squirted up from craters in the moon's surface filling the dark night sky with a gaseous haze. Off in the distance, chain gangs of aliens and humans alike worked to mine precious metals from the soil using pickaxes and drills under the supervision of strict and brooding alien guards, most of them Drev, some of them human supervised on more than one occasion by a uniformed Tesraki. Overhead, in the distant sky, lights winked on and off from the orbiting Kepler Station, where any visiting ships were docked.

No ships larger than a six person shuttle were allowed onto the surface of the moon, and none were allowed within a ten mile radius of the A1 Supermax penitentiary fittingly nicknamed New Alcatraz. Where the Turma supermax facility on Noctopolis was known for its brutality, New Alcatraz was known for its security. The moon on which it was set had no other colonies and no other facility. It was an entire moon dedicated to a single prison. All of the employees who worked in the prison lived off-world on the Kepler Station.

No vehicles were housed at the prison itself, and when it was time for the emp;oyees to return to the station, a vehicle would be dispatched from one of the garages on that ten mile radius to come pick up the employee, but only after the proper biometric readings were taken.

New Alcatraz had been built after another facility breach that had involved infected starborn, a half mad, Gibb, and a couple of corrupt ex Drev leaders. Most of the prisoners had been moved here after the incident, and great precautions were being taken to see that such an event never happened again.

A single hover car sped over the surface of the moon, and under the darkened sky.

Four individuals sat inside two Drev and two humans, one of them driving.

As they approached the prison grew larger and larger in their vision an intimidating span of concrete, steel, razor wire, and laser webs which rose up into the sky and spread out across the moon like the roots of a great tree. They made it all the way o the docking bay where automated turrets controlled from the Kepler station followed them as they stepped out of the vehicle. The driver stayed where he was, leaving just one human and two Drev to be greeted by uniformed guards dressed in black tactical gear from head to toe.

They nodded to the human, who wore a pristine grey uniform and white belt, captains cap resting atop his head before greeting the drev, one of them inconspicuous despite his nine foot size in comparison to the smaller Drev, whose body seemed to glow with pearlescent light cast off by the beautifully crafted armor which she wore. None of them carried weapons, and so they were ushered over to the side of the docking bay where their biometric readings were taken. Retinal, fingerprint, Dna, weight, and body measurements taken by a massive and expensive machine who could detect the smallest change in a biological signature.

Sunny stepped out onto the cold floor of the prison armor clattering lightly as she did so.

Adam was waiting for her as was Cannon, his massive hulkin shape glowing red like blood in the near darkness.

Adam looked at her with some measure of concern, "Are you sure you want to do this, there is still time to turn back, forget about her."

Sunny turned to look at him, "Are you implying that I can't handle her?"

He tilted his head and frowned crossing his arms over his chest, "Sunny I KNOW you can handle her, but I am just letting you know that it is an option. You don't have to grace her with your presence. By all means she doesn't deserve to see you." he turned to look at Cannon, "Either of you, after what she did, and now that you are Sainted, she deserves to see you even less. She is not worthy of your presence as a parent or as a proprietor of your religion.'

Sunny tilted her head staring at the man who despite his aggressive posture – feet spread shoulder width and arms crossed over his chest – she found mildly adorable, with his lip jutting out definitely. Despite being Admiral of the entire GA and UNSC space fleet, the man didn't exactly do intimidating well, at least not to her.

Cannon, who had stayed quiet up to this point added quietly, "Adam is right, she doesn't deserve to see us, and she thinks I'm dead after all."

Sunny lifted her head, "Than you can wait in the lobby, but I am going to finish this, once and for all, closure."

"If you go I go." Cannon said stubbornly and Sunny huffed, blowing a large gust of air out from the holes in her neck.

She turned to look at Adam, "I suppose this means you're coming too."

"Unless you strictly ask me not to."

She thought about telling him no, but decided against it. Having him by her side on a day like this was comforting. Despite everything that had happened between them over the last few months, they had recently fallen back into their same rhythm of behavior. Granted it wasn't far along as it had one been, but the friendship sure hadn't been lost, and the hope of getting back to where they once were was strong.

"No, you can come."

He nodded brusquely.

"Then I have your back."

She glanced over at her brother who nodded tersely in agreement, "Let's get this over with."

***

General Kazna, or Cosma as she was known by the humans, sat on the floor in the middle of her sell. She did not move, she rarely moved these days. Muscle that had once been hard with battle was not atrophied away leaving her thin and brittle in her age. Even if she had enough room to move it wouldn't have mattered: her legs: twisted and deformed as they could not bare her weight without great agony.

She was crippled.

In an act of revenge that had cut the tendons of her feet. She was what she had once despised, and here in this prison, they would not let her rest, they would not let her honorably fade into the blackness. They watched her day and night, they had stripped all objects from her rooms in an attempt to keep her from returning to the spirits. She had tried other ways, but her body had proven too strong, or the equipment too weak, so on one or two occasions, they had saved her life just to lock her back in this prison and leave her to rot.

She had tired to forgo water and food wishing to waste away, but te survival instinct of the Drev ran too deep over the long term, and she was unable to finish herself honorably. It was the worst punishment she could have thought of, to be left on the face of the world as a cripple unable to die.

And so she sat there in the darkness of her cell day and night dreaming of great battles she had once fought in, armies she had led, and.... The glory and happiness she had once shared with her dear beloved Lanus, dead more than half a decade now, his body decaying into the moss and stone of a bone riddled battlefield. Oh how she missed him, how she had missed him for two and a half decades as they grew apart, as his demeanor had soured towards her.

She thought it was that, which she regretted most of all.

She rocked back and forth slightly imagining his handsome gold carapace and his strong arms that had held her when they were young, when they were still happy.

Kazna wished to be with him again, wanted nothing more than to finally give up this body so decrepit and broken.

Despite her misery and self loathing, she was not entirely useless, and with her sharp senses she still detected the soft clattering of four pairs of feet coming up the hallway, two of them drev, one of them human.

She sneered.

She hated humans, even more so than the day she had first met them in battle. It was THEY who had taken her home from her, THEY who had destroyed her life, and THEY who had killed her dear Lanus.

The footsteps walked forward, and she expected them to pass by her sell, but instead, they stopped before her, silent except for the shuffling of metal on metal.

She opened her eyes blinking owlishly in the light.

It was the armor that caught her eye first. She had never seen anything like it over the course of her lifetime, but she would have known it anywhere. Pearlescent, glowing like a fallen star from the heavens, the mark of the saints. For a moment she thought she was witnessing some sort of strange illusion, a spirit taken form from the heavens. The light bent and swirled around the body of the Drev, and it was only as her eyes adjusted and the light faded that she saw the face staring back at her.

A face she knew all too well.

She jolted back away holding herself up by just her hands, "You!" her voice came out as a strangled sort of yelp.

Chalan, Kazna's daughter, looked back at her from under the helmet of a Saint.

"Kazna."

Kazna covered her eyes, wiped at her face and looked up again, sure that she was hallucinating, sure it was all a lie, but the armor only seemed to glow all the brighter as she looks.

"I... it can't be." She whispered,"You're not... you."

"What? Not worthy? The Sentinel of the mountain begs to differ."

Kazna started

Chalan stepped forward face just opposite the humming barrier of energy, "I climbed to the top of the mountain and there I met the watcher Naktan, who helped me develop the new doctrine. Even as we speak it is being spread far and wide among the Drev."

Kazna shook her head, "No."

"Yes, the old ways are bringing us into the future mother, the true beliefs of our ancestors are being restored.... One of them, I think you might be interested to hear. The doctrine of the spear....which I am told is a doctorne as old as time and perverted by generations past, a doctorinthat says any Drev born with the ability to hold a spear shall be spared the fire."

Kazna started, "What meaning does this have to me! Why are you here?'

Chalan stared at her impassively, nothing like the stubborn young Drev who had lived her life through impulse. This was the cold stare of a warrior, and Kazna couldn't deny that.

"As a Saint, i might say that every Drev deserves to know the truth, to hear about changes in our religion despite their status, but.... Honestly mother, my reasons are a little more pretty than that. You were wrong about me, and your hatred tore our family apart." There was a shifting behind her and kazna raised her eyes to find.... But n... this couldn't be right either, it was an apparition! A lie! This couldn't be real.

She struggled to her feet in such horrific pain tat she had to claw her way up the wall to get a better look, "Kanan....m...my son.... You can't be real."

The hulking shape stepped out of the shadow to reveal the truth. That iwas, in fact, her son, with his blood red carapace and eyes like his father, "But I am."

They were both here, both of her children, and one of them sainted. It must have been a delirious dream. None of this could have been real, but deep down she knew it was, she wasn't that far gone."

Chalan tilted her head, "You've fallen far, mother."

Kazna hissed, "Leave me to my peace!" She shrieked. She Turned her head in an angry whirlwind and as she did, her eyes fell on the figure standing just behind thm, diminutive in comparison to a Drev, with only two arms,and a very human face. She recognized him instantly, and flew into a violent rage that tossed her pain from her like a cloak. She slammed her hands against the barrier despite the shocks it sent up her arms.

"YOU,YOU MURDERER!"

The human stared at her impulsive but said nothing

She was livid spitting vitriol at the human who had killed her dear Lanus.

"How dare you betray him!" She said whirling on Chalan, "How dare you betray his memory, by befriending this, this THING."

Chalan sneered at her, "You're pathetic mother. Father died in fair battle, and I hold no grudge."

"You disgrace, hiding behind the cowardly worm who killed your father. This maggot riddled spite filled unworthy creature!"

WIth a sudden jolt of movement chalan slammed her hand against the side of the wall causing kazna to stubble back and fall, "You will not speak of him that way!" her eyes glowed gold like fire and she seemed to grow larger with her anger despite her diminutive size. "You pathetic hate filled shadow. This human has showed me nothing but honor and respect, which is far more than you have ever done, and with my blessing he carries the legacy of MY father, who I KNOW would respect him as a warrior should."

Kazna was so angry she could hardly speak.

"What is he to you."

Standing across the barrier, both of thm shaking with pent up tension and rage.

With her voice tight like a rubber band, straining as if it were to break, Sunny leaned forward, "You will not speak of MY battle partner in such a manner."

Kazna froze. The tension between them drew tight until it snapped completely.

She saw red, and white and black all in quick succession. She screamed until her voice broke and slammed her hand against the barrier. Her daughter with her husband' MURDERER!

Kazna continued to scream until the guards rushed in, and she had to be restrained physically.

As she turned her head, she watched as the group of them were ushered away, but she caught Chalan's eyes and as she did she watched as her daughter rested an affectionate hand on the man's shoulder the look on her face one of wicked glee.

And then she screamed some more.

***

"So uh, mind telling me what the hell that was about?"

Adam drew to a halt as Sunny marched down the hallway, forcing them all to a stop Cannon looking almost as confused.

Sunny drew to a stop stiffly, "I'm sorry.... I just, I wanted to watch her hurt."

"As much as I enjoyed her little tantrum," Adam began, "I was last under the impression that you and I weren't a thing anymore, unless there is something I missed and we are again, in which case I'm not complaining but..... It's kind of a hell of a way to find out, and admittedly not one that I particularly appreciate."

She looked away.

"I'm not a fan of being used like that."

"I'm sorry." Shewhispered, "I got carried away.... And I...I guess I wasn't as ready as I said I was."

She looked up and with a good natured smile he shrugged, "As an expert in not being as ready as I think I am, I can forgive you." He rested a hand on his arm, "Maybe you will listen to me next time I suggest it isn't a good idea. I do have your back after all."

She lifted her head and nodded, "I know."

"Besides that.... Did it help Confronting her?"

Sunny paused and stared down at the floor.

"No.... it feels empty."

Spite had brought her nothing

And she felt no better.