Twenty: At the End of the Journey

Serin wasn't sure what she expected when she finally came out to the rally point, but millions of people in the middle of what was essentially a rave wasn't it. The last of the debris and the Flood spore cloud were being shunted through the wormhole and into WR102 to burn up, and most of the ships - including Infinity - were docked with the Enterprise, their personnel somewhere within, celebrating the final defeat of the Flood. Even the AIs were having a good time.

The Port Stanley was directed to dock with the simply massive ship near the Infinity, the hard light net drawing them into a hard light dock above the larger (but still tiny) supercarrier. There were only a handful of people in sight when they emerged, mostly Huragok with the odd alien in Forerunner armor directing them.

The one called Ferial was waiting for them with a faintly sly smile. Without a word, she waved them all through a portal to the waystation near S-Base - where they were hit with a wall of sound. There was a city nearby, elsewhere on the plain - a full-blown city, complete with skyscrapers - and it was a riot of color and sound and flashing lights, people filling the streets and spilling out into the open land beyond, laughing and screaming and dancing to a hundred different songs at once.

The transport was almost deathly silent by comparison, but they got to see everything as they flew. That city wasn't alone - there were others in the distance, all equally fervently partying, with literally millions of people in and through and around and between, dozens of different species all melded together in celebration.

S-Base was much quieter, likely because all the S-IVs were in the cities partying while their S-II and S-III siblings hung out at home. That didn't mean they were entirely silent, though; Serin could hear the clangs and thuds of armored combat, sparring, along with whoops of victory and groans of defeat.

Lasky met them outside. Ferial had disappeared at some point, still with her enigmatic smile, so the other human officer led Admiral Hood, Fhajad, and Musa into the base, with Serin herself bringing up the rear. She wasn't sure what to think, how to feel - Black Box had confirmed that what the Chief had said was true, for the most part. Her predecessor did seem to have ordered the Spartans in ONI isolated from their siblings to foster dependence on the organization, but left it up to her underlings to decide how to actually go about breaking them away from the program. Still, he was right enough that now she wasn't sure what to do. What should she do in this situation? Because she couldn't do nothing, but how was she to respond to having her world upended?

There was a soft touch on her arm. She whirled around, a hand falling to her sidearm - and came face to face with herself. The other her was about the same age, but taller by about six inches and wore the same sleek Forerunner-MJOLNIR as the rest of the Infected Spartans. She jerked her head, and Serin followed without a word, stepping into a side room that looked to be just storage, although for what it was impossible to say; every crate was the same impersonal gray metal, stamped with alien writing.

She turned back to her other self, who pulled something out of one of her waist pouches. "John wanted to make sure you got this before anything else," she said, pulling out a small metal cube and showing her the data crystal inside, "All the moles and traitors in ONI, everything we've got on them, and the people they sell to. And also a few things that Intrepid Eye fucked up and the people who helped her, voluntarily and not, if you want to look into them."

Serin held out her hand, and the other her handed it to her. "Along with a little something from me," she finished.

"What is it?"

"Our mother," she said, and Serin didn't need to have ONI's training to see that this was a sore subject, "She's still alive - we relocated all of your families, same as John did for us in our world. That has her contact info… as well as my memory of my reunion with her."

"Something went wrong?"

"In a manner of speaking." There was a soft smile with a sharp, bitter edge. "After she was - relocated, she got clean of the drugs, got remarried, started a new family - with an Insurrectionist."

Serin let out her breath in a hiss, and the other her nodded in agreement. "Needless to say, she was far from pleased that her firstborn was a 'one of the UNSC's best-trained dogs'. We met once, and then never again. The last time I even heard about her was John asking if I wanted him to send a 'Fuck You' flower arrangement to her funeral."

"Did you?"

The other her shot her an amused look. "What do you think?"

Serin couldn't help but grin at that. "Fair enough."

They rejoined the main group in time to hear John shout, "Meatball! I know you want to join the party, but I put you on that table for a reason! Someone could step on you!"

"That thing is the size of a dragon-dog!" James-005 returned from somewhere in the crowd, "No way in hell we'd miss him!"

"You'd be surprised, Jay, you'd be surprised. Also, Joyeuse, stop flirting with Captain Lasky; he's too young for you, and you don't like having a physical form, which may or may not be a deal-breaker."

"Ugh, flesh! I prefer to exist as pure intellect."

"Yeah, because you want long hair but don't like washing it."

"Mom!"

"You say some bullshit, we're gonna call you out on it."

Meatball went skittering past, herded by a group of laughing Spartans, who seemed to be making a game of trying to catch him. Serin followed her other self over to another group of Spartans and a few aliens, including one of the dragon-people, the Gultanr, who tilted her head up to bump her other self's nose with her own. "Our Sam's not the only one who dates outside his species. This is Athayn," the other introduced, "my partner. And these are Fall-of-the-Hammer, Johenji, and Moons-of-Evening-Star."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," said Evening-Star, "Look out behind you."

Serin stepped to one side just in time to avoid Meatball running into her legs as he raced away from the Spartans. Of course then he plowed right into the Lifeworker in question, who scooped him up and ran off with him held up over her head, the super soldiers still in pursuit.

"Not what you expected, is it?" said the other Serin.

"Not really, no," she replied with a soft laugh, "but now, at least? I hardly think that's a bad thing."

**********

Legends never die,

When the world is calling you,

Can you hear them screamin' out your name?

Legends never die,

They become a part of you,

Every time you bleed for reaching greatness,

Legends never die...

-"Legends Never Die", League of Legends feat. Against the Current