I Have Returned: Chapter 28
Rebirth
1 Year ago….
Jane felt like an emotional wreck for the past few days. After that one nightmare she just felt depressed. The nightmares that followed barely contained any ponies. They mostly consisted of Osman trying to convince her to stay with humanity forever.
The worst part about it though was that the idea felt so safe. Jane was accepted here. As a human she would be looked up to as a hero for her actions, in Equestria she would be considered a villain. That was for certain.
She had spent five years with the human race. Five whole years. She had been a human longer than she was friends with the other element bearers back in ponyville. Did that make her connection to the human race stronger to her connection with her old friends?
Everything in her life was confusing at this moment. It was so hard to force it all inside of her so nobody would know. It all just felt bottled up, like it was going to burst at any moment.
Every waking hour was now filled with thoughts like this. She couldn’t even force them out of her when Earth was being attacked. They controlled her life at this point, ruled her very essence.
Right now on the other hand Jane was doing her very best to focus on her current work, to little avail sadly. At the very least she was making progress.
Her job was to sort through the new arrivals on the INFINITY. The ship was getting an influx of new crew members, around one hundred to be more exact.
She was scrolling through the list checking off name after name of who arrived on her com pad in one of the INFINITY’s main hangers. Normally an A.I. would do this but when INFINITY crashed onto requiem the ship lost it’s A.I.. The ship was going to get a new one very soon according to command.
Jane scrolled down to the next name, and her eyes widened as she read it in it’s typical last name first, middle name last format in which it was displayed. Dougherty, Brennan, Michael. At first Jane rubbed her eyes thinking her mind was playing tricks on her, but the name stayed. It was him!
Looking up away from her com pad Jane surveyed her surroundings looking for him. It took her a few moments, but eventually she spotted him on the other side of the hanger.
“Brennan!” She shouted as she ran up to him.
His ears perked up at the sound of her voice, and his head turned to face her. The instant they locked eyes, he smiled.
“Jane is that you?” He asked.
“You bet!”
The moment Jane got close enough to Brennan, he pulled her in for a hug. Reluctantly she returned it. It felt strange hugging another human being. With her current life you never knew when someone was going to die, it made Jane cautious about making friends and getting close to others.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m part of Spartan command. I help lead all Spartan fireteams, including my own. What about you?”
“I just became a Spartan IV. I am currently now the leader of Fireteam Crimson! How awesome is that! Wow I would have never thought that one day you would outrank me.”
“What have you been doing these past years?”
“I’ve been stationed around a few planets nothing much.”
“What did you do that made the UNSC make you a Spartan?”
“About half a year ago I was stationed aboard a ship. We got attacked by some Storm Covie ship. We had to crash land on a freezing planet. It was usually about minus fifty in the day, and even worse at night. I banded together a few groups of survivors from the escape pods. When the Covies came down to the planet to finish us off we hijacked a Phantom drop ship and took their main ship by force. The UNSC was so impressed with me that they made the offer. What about you Jane?”
Of course Jane couldn’t mention a word about her being with ONI. That didn’t mean that she hadn't done anything noteworthy in her time as a marine.
“I was in the battle of the Ark. I got through it unscathed which drew UNSC attention towards myself.”
Her lie was partway true. Her surviving the battle of the Ark was what made ONI and Osman watch her. Essentially she only told Brennan half the story.
“Wow. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like. Oh well though, I’m just happy to lead Fire Team Crimson.”
“Crimson…. That’s a good name, it suits you.”
He stood there for a moment thinking before he responded.
“Heh, you’re right. It does work with me. You know most people rarely get my name right the first time, maybe I should just Crimson as a nickname.”
“That would be kind of neat, you should do that!”
“Very well then. You can call me Crimson for now on.”
“Perfect then Crimson.” Jane said with extra emphasis on Crimson, and a warm smile. “As for right now I’m just making sure all of the new people aboard the ship are accounted for. I guess that means I can check you and your fire team off the list.”
Jane checked all of their names off and scrolled down a bit. This time another big name popped up.
“My god…” Jane said. “The Master Chief is here!”
“Holey shit! I guess that means you have to meet him to check his name off!”
Jane for the first time in weeks felt excited. She was going to meet the Master Chief. Humanity’s savior, the one and only!
“What are we waiting for then, lets go!”
_______________________________________________________________
There he stood in all his glory, Sierra 117 the Master Chief. She had heard legends of him, how he destroyed Halo, stopped the flood, and many other great accomplishments he had done. He was staring out the window down onto Earth. Captain Lasky had just finished talking to him, and told him that he would leave the deck so the Chief could have it all by himself. She knew that the Captain would be angry with her if she stayed here, but she had to take her chance to talk to him, just once.
“She said that to me once, about being a machine.” He said to himself, not knowing that she was just walking up behind him.
“You are the Master Chief, right?” She said.
He turned around in surprise to see a female Spartan with long flowing purple hair and a few streaks of pink in it, staring at him like he was some sort of god.
“Yes.” He responded.
“My name is Jane Arimondo Sir, Spartan IV class." She said while giving a salute. "I know Lasky wanted you to be left alone, but do you mind if I stay here for a while?” She asked to the Spartan towering over her.
“No, it’s fine.” His voice spoke with a deep emotionless monotone, it was almost scary.
“Thank you sir.” She put her hand up against the window, and joined the Chief as the both looked upon the great Earth in all of its magnificent glory. It made her wonder, what would Equestria look like from space? It certainly was a very different world than Earth.
“Something is bothering you.” He said.
“I think that goes for both of us. What happened to you?”
“I lost a friend today, a good friend.”
“I guess you could say I’ve lost plenty of friends. From back home that is.”
“How so?” He asked.
“I haven’t seen them in years, but chances are they would hate what I have become.”
“You are a soldier, you protect people, and there is no greater honor than that.”
His words spoke the truth, though did not he know where her friends actually were.
“I suppose, but they hate killing with a deep passion, they would probably view me as some sort of monster.”
The chief reflected on these words. “Killing is never right, but humanity must always come first, even if means killing.”
“I guess at this point any solution if preferable to extinction.”
The sad thing is though; she knew her friends from Equestria would never understand. Humanity is filled with this instinct to survive, the instinct to protect their causes even if it means the sacrifices of millions, and as she’s seen; sometimes billions. Ponies had no such survival instinct; they would rather cower in fear of oppression then kill for freedom. They would call humans monsters if they saw what they had done, and it’s because of that ignorance that they could never understand what they’ve had to go through, what she has had to go through.
Human kind has had to fight for its right to live since the dawn of it's existence, while the ponies bask in their everlasting peace, ignorant of the sacrifices humanity has made. Some would call their ignorance bliss, but it angered Jane to her core knowing that they sit all high and mighty, while good people died trying to save their species.
Sure they’ve had to fight before, but only for a few mere hours at most, and they wouldn’t even suffer any casualties. They will never understand, what true war is like, and they will understand what she has become.
“I am no monster, I am a human soldier, and I couldn’t be prouder. Thank you sir, I will leave you alone now.” And with that she quickly walked out of the room to once again leave the Spartan II alone in his thoughts.
She left the deck only to see Crimson there waiting for her.
“So, did you do it, did you talk to him?” He asked.
“I did, he opened my eyes to something.”
“Like what?”
“That I should be proud to be Jane Arimondo, and no one else.” Jane said as she walked off and checked the Master Chief off of her list.
_______________________________________________________
Darkness surrounded Jane. Fear started to rush back into her as she knew what was coming. Once again she was having a nightmare.
Then the words came. At first they were quiet. They were almost a whisper.
“Monster.… Monster….”
Yes, the words she was expecting. The words that had been haunting her for the past few years. Slowly but surely they got louder and louder.
“Monster!.... Monster!....”
Jane could start to feel her heart race at that moment. Here is was, happening again. Every single night of her life now had a dream like this.
“MONSTER!!.... MONSTER!!....”
“Shutup!” Jane shouted as she fell to her knees and plugged her ears. “Just please shut up!”
The voices stopped for a moment letting Jane breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe, just maybe this night was going to go easy on her.
That little hope she had though was squashed the moment she realized that she was in the Golden Oaks library with all of her old friends.
“No, no, this can’t be happening!” Jane said.
“Be quite monster!” They all said in unison. Their words making Jane’s heart skip a beat, and her skin go cold.
“Please just don’t do this to me. I can’t take much more!” Jane pleaded as she fell down on the floor crying.
“We don’t listen to killers!” Applejack said.
“Ya, why should we give any pity to you.” Rainbow Dash added.
“You obviously don’t give any pity to the ones who you kill.” Rarity continued.
“No, I only kill because I have to. To protect innocent lives. Why can’t any of you see that!”
“Murder is murder. You have blood on your hands! Only a monster has blood on their hands.” They all said again.
“No! I’m not a monster! I would never hurt anyone for no good reason!”
“There is no good reason for killing.”
All of her old friends saying those words all at the exact same time scared her more than any Covie could ever dream of.
“You don’t understand! You haven’t been in the situations I have been in!”
“No.” Rarity said. “You are a disgrace to everything that ponykind stands for. You have soiled your name, your reputation, and your own kind. Only a monster can do something like that!”
Jane tried to say something back to Rarity, but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash.
“I am the Element of Loyalty, and I will never stay loyal to the likes of you Jane Arimondo.”
Hearing her old friends use her new name like that hurt beyond all measure. The way in which they said it made her feel like she betrayed them all. The thing was though was that she knew that she never betrayed them, and had no intentions of ever doing so.
Now Fluttershy spoke.
“I am the Element of Kindness, and you don’t have a shred of good in you. I wouldn’t even let you go near my animals because you would probably kill them.”
Once again the words stung. This time though it Jane felt a spark of anger. She didn’t need to take this. She wasn’t a monster, and she knew that. Nothing that her old friends could say would change that. On the other hand the words they were saying still hurt.
Suddenly though Jane heard Osman’s voice call out to her.
“Humanity always comes first. You are better than them.”
Jane paused for a moment as she heard the words. She looked back up at her friends who were all glaring at her. Jane’s breathing started to become more erratic as the anger inside her grew.
“Humanity always comes first. You are better than them.” She heard the voice again. This time though to Jane’s shock, it wasn’t in Osman’s voice, it was in her voice!
Jane didn’t want to believe it at first, but she knew that those words didn’t come out of her mouth.
Behind her Jane heard footsteps, and angled her head to see who it was. To no surprise it was Serin Osman herself.
“Your are better than them.” Osman said.
Slowly though Osman’s face started to change until it fully morphed into Jane’s face.
“We are better than them.” Jane’s counterpart said before fading away.
Strangely though Jane wasn’t confused, she was full on angry now. The spark of anger that had started this was now a full on flame. Her old friends were calling her a monster. That was not true, Jane was a hero and she knew it. She saved countless lives, no monster would ever do that!
The five ponies all started to chant together at this point in time.
“Monster…. Monster…. Monster…. Monster…. Monster…. Monster…. Monster…. Monster….”
Jane gritted her teeth as she heard those words. How dare they call her a monster. She was a good human being. The words stuck with her, human being. Now she knew why, humans accepted her, they always would. Why would she ever need to go back to a place where she wasn’t accepted.
“I am not a monster!” Jane shouted, now standing up. Yet the chanting didn’t stop “I said I am not a monster!”
Once again the chanting continued. It pissed her off that they would think of her like this. They were her friends, and friends were supposed to stand by other friends no matter what. All of them, they were all just ignorant little ponies who could never understand her sacrifices! There was no doubt in Jane’s mind right now, she was pissed off to her very core.
Jane felt something laying on top of her feet. It was a MA5D Assault Rifle. It was waiting for her there, beckoning her to use it.
The Master Chief’s words rang through her head again.
“You are a soldier, you protect people, and there is no greater honor than that.”
He was right. She was a soldier, she was a human. Jane was where she belonged, alongside her brothers in arms ready to fight to their very last breath for humanity! Yes humanity, and no others.
Jane picked up the Assault Rifle from the ground and held it up high. Her old friends were still chanting the word monster over and over again. Each time Jane heard the word she grew even more angry, until finally she snapped.
“SHUT UP!!!!!!!” Jane screamed at the top of her lungs as she sprayed bullets at each of her old friends, the bullets tearing through them. “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!!!!!”
The five ponies were long since dead at this point, but Jane stilled fired bullet after bullet into their fresh corpses.
“I HATE YOU! I HATE ALL OF YOU!!!!!”
And with that Jane finally woke up. This time though there was no tears, no sadness, just anger, pure anger.
Jane was where she belonged now. For years she thought that her destiny was being a princess, but now she knew that she was born to be a Spartan, born to be Jane Arimondo. Yes, Jane Arimondo, that was her name, and she would carry that name to the grave!
Reaching under her bed Jane grabbed out her old picture of her and her friends and without a second thought she ripped it up and threw it in the trash. She didn’t need it anymore, and Jane certainly didn’t need them anymore.
This was her new life. Her life as a human, her true life. Never in Jane’s life did she feel more at him than at this singular moment. She was a human, and she was proud of it. Proud of everything that humanity stood for.
Jane at this moment decided that she was never going to go back, ponykind didn’t deserve her. She was better than them in every way. And in that moment she took a deep breath as Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes, and Jane Arimondo opened them.