Lucy knew for a fact she shouldnt be doing this. Just how she shouldnt have stuffed her bed with her duffle to make it look like she was sleeping. Or how she shouldnt have snuck out without her boots on despite the sprinkling of rain. Or even how she shouldnt have snuck past some of the trainers to find the one person she deemed to always have the answers. He would know, she decided. He had to. Her little body trembled from the cold and as her fingers curled around the fabric of a shirt she gave it a few tugs. Another tremor rippling through due to the cold.
The Spartan II had only been out of his meeting for naught but thirty seconds before something else demanded his attention. He needed some rest, dammit! He needed time to prepare for the day to come, and he couldn’t do it on a mind that hasn’t had a break in three days. Tomorrow was just too damned important for anything to go wrong.
The young Spartans were to undergo a rite of passage, the same that Alpha Company and even his own brothers and sisters in arms had gone through. For his own kind, the journey to true Spartanhood had been harrowing. One third of his class never returned from ONI’s flesh-forge. Another third had, but weren’t as lucky as Kurt and ilk. Their bodies were broken and twisted, leaving them with pain and suffering that would never heal with time.
The Alpha’s were fortunate. Fate had spared them of such a terrible fate, up until they met their end in another. It was not fate that killed Alpha, it was Kurt. He had not given them the resources nor time they needed. He had not sufficiently taught them to value each other as much as they valued themselves. For Kurt’s failures, they were picked off one by one.
He would never let it happen again.
It was the tiny Beta’s hand that pulled him from thought, from fear.
He turned to see none other than dear little b091. How she crept out of her squadbay, snuck past the DIs and ended up here was anyone’s guess. The Lieutenant was caught between frustration over her blatant disregard for the rules she had been so carefully trained to follow and the pride he had in her for her skill in stealth.
“You’re supposed to be in bed.” Said Kurt.
If only Jorge wasn’t asleep. He’d have handled something like this a bit better.
