Zeus turned around to see the ONI Sisters and Riley pointing guns at the three remaining insurgents. One of them was Captain Enrico Valdez.

"Fire Of Dusk, this is Exodus One. We have a captain by the name of Enrico Valdez in custody.  What are our orders?" 

"Spartan 225, this is Major Walden,  your orders are to stand by and wait for an extraction team to extract the captain."

Riley hit the captain with the butt of her gun. "I won't ask again, how many women and children are you holding in your compound?

Valdez winced. "Three- Three hundred. We hold the women in a cell so that the men can pick and choose them like-"

"Like what, cattle!? Men like you need to be put in an airlock and be allowed to suffocate!" Erica said.

Zeus sat back and watched the action happen, debating on whether or not he should step in.

"Chappy, I think you should come and get this situation diffused. Erica and Riley are pretty steamed." Reeva said to Zeus on a private channel.

Zeus walked over. "Okay, okay, simmer down. Valdez, I swear, if you don't tell us where the compound is I'll-"

"Okay, okay! We're holed up in an old Covenant research base. We thought it would be beneficial if we looted from somewhere where everyone was afraid of going."

Zeus got right up in Valdez's face. "Your luck has run out. Spartans aren't scared of anything."

But, he was bluffing. He himself was terrified of losing Riley without ever confessing his feelings to her, he was terrified of losing another one of his friends.

The bluff worked. Valdez pissed his pants.

The Pelican came in, and new orders were issued by the Major.

"225, you and the two Spartans from ONI are to go and rescue the people held captive in the rebel base. You are not authorized to fire your weapons."

Hand to hand combat. Perfect for Zeus to take his mind off of everything.

He walked up to Riley, who was giving orders to the ODST's who had disembarked from the Pelican.

"When I get back, we need to talk."

"I was going to tell you the same thing." She said to him.

-----------------------------

2:00 AM, Crash Site of Inevitable Retribution

"Whoa. Chappy, do you see this?"

Zeus turned his turret to see a massive Covenant Corvette wreckage in the middle of a field. His mind flashed back to the day his parents died.

Oh, God please no.... I can't bear to remember that day right now. 

Zeus calmed his mind and boxed his feelings away as the trio of Spartans approached the camp. They cut off the Warthog outside the gate and crept up to the compound. Two guards patrolled the entrance- a gaping hole in the monster's side.

Reeva went and threw two knives at their chests. They dropped like flies.

Zeus went in.

"Erica, you and Reeva go and find those prisoners. I'm going to rig this base to explode."

"Roger that, Chappy. Give them hell."

The three split off and Zeus went to the western side of the ship. He heard a familiar call- one that forced him to flash back to the beginning.

----------------------------------------------

"Kill the humans! Leave none of them alive!" A Sanghelli Elite in Zealot class armor had cried out.

Zeus hid in the closet as he watched his dad and his mom shoot three Grunts in the head, before they died. He remembered their armor and everything. As the Elite's patrol passed further into the city, he came out of the closet and walked up to his dad, who was holding a book and a silver Cross.

"Take it, son... Fulfill... your... calling...."

He took the book and put the cross necklace around his neck, and grabbed his pack and jacket and ran as far as he could. 

He came upon a man in a Captain's suit, and the Captain put another man in the same armor his parents were in with him to protect him. That protector put him on a Pelican bound to the Revenge of Dusk, which in turn was bound to a Spartan training facility.

----------------------------------------------------

"Chappy, do you copy?" Erica said, snapping him out of his flashback.

"Y-yeah, I copy. You got a SitRep?" He felt the cross that his dad gave him still underneath his armor. He breathed softly.

"We got the captives and are evacuating them to the transports. Have you found anything?"

"I hear a Sanghelli down the hallway. I just had a flashback-"

"I read about the ones you had. That Sanghelli voice is probably a recorded mayday signal. It's okay, they abandoned this Corvette about 35 years ago. You're safe. Make it home safely, Chappy. You still gotta explain why you are the Chappy. Erica out."

Zeus continued down the hallway. He saw what he had expected. 

A Sanghelli Elite, crying out for help.

It looked familiar to him. He took off his helmet and walked up to it.

"Please, please help, they have been torturing me for a while. I... I know the war has been over for sometime, and I have seen the monstrosities that these... these people have committed against the feminine members of this race."

Zeus got up close to him, with tears in his face. He didn't know what hurt worse, seeing the Elite who had killed the only ones who had ever cared about him or how this Elite was treated by these rebel scum. 

"Do... do you remember this face?" He asked the Elite.

"Y-you are the son of a demon!"

"I witnessed you killing my parents. But they weren't demons... they were people who believed in God and preached about Him in the huge cathedral in the town. They died trying to protect me from you... and even though this violates everything I have vowed to do to you, I.... I forgive you. I'm going to set you free, and you're going to help me blow up this monstrosity."

A wave of relief and new feelings crashed over Zeus, one he hadn't felt since the revival he had been to on Earth while he was on leave.

"I've been waiting on you, Zeus. Even though you were named after a god of thunder, you will be a son of thunder- meaning I'm going to use you to do great things."

God! 

Zeus teared up and started crying as he cut the Elite's restraints off of him.

"What is your name, demon?"

"I'm not a demon, my name is Zeus Makara. And yours?'

"My name is Za'Hara Shimyusa. Just call me Z."

"If I have caused you so much pain, why are you allowing me to live-- and forgive me for hurting you so deeply?"

"Because, I'm a Chaplain, and I should start sticking to my chaplain guns. I protect the weak, and the God I serve calls me to not hold grudges against enemies. I'm crying because I finally heard His voice for the first time in a while after forgiving you."

"I..... I thank you, Spartan Zeus." Z was speechless.

"We have to move to the ship's reactor core and scuttle this ship. Then, we have to flee to the Warthog I have outside."

"There would be no time..." Z said, "there is a Phantom parked in the hangar. I alone know the access code, for I alone have been on this world for over 30 years."

"What is your lifespan?"

"About as much as yours, if I don't enter into a war and get shot by somebody or something. I have been stuck here, whenever the Covenant mass-murdered the Elites all of the ships rushed to the Prophet of Truth's call for help. Most of them were obliterated, and my ranks turned within themselves, with everyone on this glass-planet  killing each other. The last portion of Elites went south and was working on helping your kind rebuild before the Insurgents came and started terrorizing people."

"So that's why you wanted to help," Zeus panted as the pair rain to the reactor core, "you were tired of seeing people suffer."

"These hands have taken so many innocent lives under the orders of the false prophets..." Z said, obviously regretting everything he had done to human kind, "I regret so much."

Zeus shoved his helmet on as he prayed for the advice of God.

"There was a Sanghelli, much resembling your Jesus, who came down 2,500 years ago and died on a similar cross just like your Jesus did. His name was Immanuel."

"God with us," the two said in unison. 

"Why don't you believe in Him?"

"The prophets, when they came to our world, spoke of a 'Great Journey' that had vexed every person on my world of Sanghelios," Z said, "Immanuel spoke of the same thing, but it was more like a spiritual basis than-"

"Than a physical one. Your kind was mislead by false prophets who looked to gain by using people."

The pair had reached the door to the reactor core.

"Major, this is Exodus One, I am scuttling this ship. I have found a Sanghelli Elite who was kept prisoner here, and he says he's willing to help us restore order to Harvest."

"Roger that, Captain. I'll send a Pelican down to the city when you return."

"One more thing: We're coming back to town in a Phantom."

"Roger, I'll notify the squad." The Major's voice faded.