Smoke rose in a sow, lazy ribbon against the backdrop of lightening blue sky. Beyond the mountainous horizon, the sun was just beginning to show its face over the jagged peaks. Spears of golden light cut over the slowly lightening landscape, the first shred of dawns invasion.

Adam stood with his face to the sun, breathing in the smoke given off by his childhood home feet planted firmly on the hilltop which overlooked the town proper. In years past he remembered standing in just this spot, his bare feet cool against the grass looking down on the town he had called home. If he closed his eyes he could remember the lazy haze of summer and the cars passing below him down Main Street, passing by picture perfect shop fronts . He remembered the sound of bugs buzzing in the late afternoon sun, and the burble of water through the creek that ran at the base of the hills.

He turned slowly, as if in a dream. Visions and memories passed before him, and the haze of summer turned into the cool chill of fall. The ancient tree to his left was resplendent in the rustic finery of a fall evening, its leaves crimson and orange, just weeks from falling. The ancient tire swing rocked lazily in a cool breeze rubbing against the old, scarred bark from where it had sat since time immemorial.

The smell of smoke wafted into his face, and the visions faded.

The feel of grass beneath his toes vanished, and he found himself standing alone atop a desolate hill. The grass beneath his feet was black, and crunched when he walked. Much of Orion Mericanda had been decontaminated using the Aerosolized void spray, and while the ground was no longer writhing with the sticky remnants of infection, the void had still left scars. Where once the town had been a quiet emerald jewel surrounded by quiet suburban neighborhoods, it was now a grey and blackened wasteland of post-apocalyptic horror. To his left the tree was still there, as was the tire swing, but it was likely that old tree would never sprout leaves again.

All the plants that had been infected by the void had fallen to ruin and died. The threes that had been turned to bone had not regained their bark once the infection was over, but simply withered and died. The animals were a bit more lucky. Family pets, housecats, dogs and the occasional fish had been inoculated against the Void and would make a slow recovery. Most of the animals had lost their fur, appearing to all the world like street animals inflicted with some horrible mange. The void had left many of them with open sores on their bodies, and weeping wounds, which Adam insisted be treated.

The families would want their pets back

If they were still alive.

There had been no call to evacuation for the citizens of orion. From what they could tell from the void cite, the infection had spread unnoticed for some time through the walls and floors of the cite be before some catalyst had spurred on the sudden and unrelenting spread. The UNSC had no time to react, and everyone they sent in to help remedy the problem had died in the attempt.

It had been left to Adam and the Arcadian army to clean up the wreckage.

All around the globe similar stories were being told.

Void cites all over the globe were being systematically shut down, some taking longer than others. Adam imagined he would lead the charge to rid another city of the void, but that would take some time.

Overhead Adam watched as three massive military carriers passed overhead distributing a between them a cloud of the void antidote into the atmosphere above orion and the surrounding areas.

The radius of the infection went further, and deeper than they had anticipated, The void spray had gone into production en mass before the week was out, and it was now being used to inoculate entire cities. It was being injected into the groundwater, and into city water supplies. Plans were being made to detonate a mass capsule of concentrated void antidote into earth's upper atmosphere in multiple locations.

It was all an impressive demonstration of teamwork.

But for some people it would be too little too late.

The people of Orion knew it.

Goldshield medical volunteers had been sent in to assist the people of Orion, and from here Adam watched as the survivors were treated for their injuries shellshocked and wrapped I reflective emergency blankets looking out at their destroyed town which was now a post-apocalyptic nightmare, the storefront windows smashed, cars overturned, skeletons smoke blackened with oil fire.

Casualties: 800 and climbing.

Adam had seen the lists, spotted names of people he knew.

Ms. Hernandez, the little old lady who owned the ice cream shop down the street, who sometimes gave him free ice cream as long as he didn't tell anyone, Troy Mackowitz, the bus driver that had taken Adam to school. May Redford, a quiet girl from his graduating class. Still hundreds more were missing. Adam imagined there were some young women who would never be found, their repurposed void bodies so corrupted that they dissolved when the body was destroyed.

But it was better that way.

Better to be missing than for the families to know what their bodies had been repurposed for.

He shuddered eyes coming to rest on one of the fields just outside of town, where now rested a slowly growing grid of white sheets.

Bodies.

Enough for a mass grave, though Adam would never have allowed that.

They deserved better.

From here, with his now enhanced Maker vision, Adam could see the bodies in great clarity through the sheets that covered them, Some tall, some thin, some big, and some, very, very small.

But soon, thankfully his vision began to blur obstructed by warm tears, which he didn't bother to wipe away as they began to fall freely down his cheeks; Dripping from his chin and onto the body of his armored suit. Adam had long since given up trying to fight such urges. When he was younger he had fancied himself a stoic, like all his action movie heroes.

It had taken him years to come to terms with the fact that.

He just wasn't .

He wasn't an emotionless brick despite what the white hair, scars, and armor might have said.

Besides, holding in his tears wasn't going to bring back the people they had lost, and weren't these people worth the loss of a little dignity? Didn't they deserve all the tears that could be shed for them? He could only hope they had all made it to the Makers, to Revelation.

He heard her before he saw her.

Both in his head and out loud.

He tried not to pry on her thoughts, but it was difficult. Adam had not had time to come to terms with the changes that had occurred after the surgery. He wasn't entirely sure what it had done to him, at least not completely. But he knew he could hear thoughts, and more than that he could feel emotions.

That's why he was here.

Instead of down there.

Because he couldn't take the pain aggregated times a hundred, all the misery and fear and loss from all those poor people welling up inside him and threatening to drown him. Dealing with his own grief was hard enough without having to drown in everyone else's. Eris and Conn told him it was possible to shut the ability off, though it would take time and practice.

For now, he could only manage blocking one person at a time.

He felt her hand come to rest on his shoulder.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"You feeling ok?"

He turned to look at her, not bothering to cover his face. She already knew the answer to that question. She just didn't know what else to say .

"I'll live."

That was true enough.

At least he could manage to keep his voice even.

He took a deep breath tilting his head back to look up at the rising sun. The land behind them was awash with golden light, slowly approaching across the open wasteland. At least Sol was unchanged as she always was.

Sunny didn't say anything but put an arm around him.

He could still feel it through his armor, but it wasn't the same.

Still he was thankful for her presence as they sat quietly atop the hill.

"What happens now?" She wondered.

Adam felt his jaw flex hard as his teeth ground together, "Something must be done. Kazna and the void have gone too far, and I have failed to act time and time again."

"This isn't your fault." She said eyes locked on him quite firmly as she did so., "I am as much a part of this as you. She is my mother after all."

"Still can't believe you two are related."

Sunny sighed, "Believe me I wonder the same thing."

Adam reached up to wipe his face, but the metal of his gauntlets didn't exactly do the best job. He gave up and dropped his hand to the side, "Point being, I think we have been on the defensive long enough. Its time that we take the fight to her. Someone is going to have to finish this eventually, and I want it to be us."

Sunny nodded once, "Do you have a plan."

"Kick Kazna's ass."

He watched her eyebrow ridge raise, "So no?"

Adam huffed, "No, not YET, but it starts with strengthening the GA. We've been divided too long at that has left us vulnerable as we have seen today. If it was up to president Hunt earth wouldn't have had ANY allies to help it. Thousands more would be dead. We can't let that happen." He nodded to himself as he spoke growing ever more firm in his convictions as he spoke.

"And.... Your Anima?" Sunny said gently urging him. Inside her head he could sense the curiosity like an aur.

"I don't know yet." He admitted, "I can read minds now, my vison is better, I feel stronger, I can use Anima energy but I.... I'm not entirely sure what else there is."

"Its alright, we have time."

He turned back to look down at the wreckage of his old town, and found he wasn't so sure that was the case.

Finally the sun broke from behind the mountains, and Adam's face was suddenly warmed by early morning light. Fr the first time in many days his body shivered with delight. He closed his eyes feeling the warm caress of Sol for the first time in years. The sensation was.... Indescribable. He let himself revel in it for a moment, the one thing about earth that had not changed and he hoped never would.

It took a few more minutes for him to speak but when he finally did, "You know since we are no longer banned from earth I want to bring kay here."

Sunny hummed her agreement.

At least that was the one good thing that might come out of this.

Kay would get to see earth.