"Rdomnai..."

Her voice breaks the silence, even to the well trained, one wouldn't have known of the Spartan Killer lurking in the shadows, watching in total silence.

"Azavayl... or should I say..." The sangheili steps forth as his cloak deactivates, revealing himself from the shadows. "Vudomai."

The Mentioning of this name was enough to burn her from within, her rage boiling as her crimson blades ignite from behind, holding her energy lance.

"Do not call me by that, I have cast that meaningless name away..."

"And in turn, have taken up another as meaningless name, one that once meant something..." Jega returned, keeping his prosthetic arm low, ready to ignite if needed.

"What do you want Jega... If you came to kill me we wouldn't be having this conversation... And you're not one for small talk." Xyda spoke with distain in her voice, a soft growl rumbles in her throat, the urge to fight burning hotter by the passing second.

"I have been sent to deal with you, Xyda. You have proved your point to the Banished, that you are indeed a force to be reckoned with... you need not to continue, you need not to be alone..."

Xyda's eyes sharpened, her chin tilts down an inch. "You've come to recruit me? To the very thing that has taken everything every from me?"

"I have come to give you everything. You have great potential, and yet, you have no one-"

"No thanks to you." Xyda cut him off as he spoke, creating a moment silence between the two for a moment.

"It was nothing personal... They earned their deaths, for only The Hand of Atriox, could slay them... a hand, that now offers you a future to become something more." His right hand lifts, and holds out to her, well out of arms reach.

Such an offer, one that only made Xyda take a moment in silence to wonder why it would even be offered to her. She's killed more Banished than she has UNSC during the war, and she has plenty left in her, despite everything. However... the thought crossed her mind, everyone she had grown close to, are dead, and now, this?

"And why would I accept this? Hmm? For Glory?"

"For me."

That response, she blinked, she paused, a response she didn't expect to her...

"You remember that day... I offered you in that moment, to join me. To leave them all behind... Where all had cast me away, you were the only one who wished me well. During our time when we fought together, you and I surpassed all others, even him, we didn't need them, we could have become more... What was it you told me, Xyda? Tell me..."

She remembers all too well... Looking to his left arm, the prosthetic that's now a part of him... Looking to his face, where his once lost mandibles have been replaced. On that day, when those Head Hunters tried to blow all of them to the hells in an eruption of fire... Where some died, they survived, and Jega... His injuries led him to be cast out from the Silent Shadows, they all looked at him in disgust for wanting to be repaired, to continue the fight... but not her, she admired that, respected it... honor, such a meaningless thing... Victory is all that matters, honor is just obstacle, some weakness that gets in the way... And that's all she saw in him, someone who has overcome that obstacle, someone who will not be stopped by anything to achieve victory... and yet, she told him that very day...

"In another life, I would have joined you without hesitation..."

"But you could not, because of your loyalty to Him, to Azavayl... Azavayl is gone, you are chasing the will of a dead man who grew mad with delusions, it wasn't his blood lust that led him to his own demise, it was his Hubris that got in the way of those who followed him... He cared not for those who followed him as loyal as you, so they lost their loyalty in him... but he is gone, they are gone... Vudomai, Xyda, You have another life, this, is your new life to live. Do not waste it chasing Azavayl."

Such words, the penetrated deep, for decades she has spent them chasing his approval, to be like him, to become Resa Azavayl... "It's all I have left..."

"It doesn't have to be, We are the last of our kind." Jega spoke to her, extending his hand out an inch further.

"With the will to survive." They told that to each other once, the night before the incident happened, thinking back on how they once fought together, how they hunted together, even with their armor hiding themselves away, they knew who they were. And now, a new life his offered to her.

In this moment of silence, the pain within swells. This pain is all she has left, it's all she knows... and now, a new way forward is offered to her, despite all she's done. One hand is tempted to reach for his, while the other grips the handle of her Energy Lance tighter... The rage, the anger, the hate is there, but so is he. He is the only one that ever understood her, but, he also took what little she had left away.

Does she continue her commitment and now must go through the only one left in this galaxy, all to kill the Banished she has fought so hard against...

Or does she begin a new path, a new journey, with the one who not only understands her, but the one she too understands... To live as one, or to die alone...


-

I haven't posted pretty much anything of her story and this is basically her ending where I kinda wanna leave it at. Where you can decide is she joined Jega and the Banished, or does she cut down the only person who ever understood her and continues her fight against the Banished.

Xyda and Jega once fought together as Silent Shadows, until two Head Hunters who detonated large explosives to take them all out with them, changed that. Jega was injured and lost one of his arms and two mandibles, due to his injuries he committed a great taboo in sangheili culture and sought out to have himself repaired rather than lay down and die. When he left, he offered Xyda to join him, but she denied and since then, she hasn't seen him, not until the Zeta ring during the events of Halo Inifnite.

Artist - LeafJuly