The admiral opened his mouth, then closed it then opened again and then closed it one more time. Kelly stood patiently in the hallway crowded by several UNSC officers and more than one MP, all of whom weren't entirely sure if they were supposed to hug her or kill her. She could see the indecision and confusion in their faces, and could even read the partial awkwardness the admiral felt for the fact that he had long since moved into her old office.

How was he supposed to let her know that politely?

The MPs were just as confused and even more concerned at the outcome. They wondered whether Kelly was still considered part of the UNSC, or if funeral rights counted as an honorable discharge. Was she even allowed to be here? But somehow she had gotten past the gate and the door which both required ID, so clearly her card was still active, but what about her rank, was that actve? Did she get hr old job back?

Or is dying considered going awol.

She turned to look at the admiral, "Admiral Carson isn't it?"

The man nodded dumbly before pulling himself together and offered a hand robotically. She took it with a small smile and shook his hand. As she did she felt a slight tingle as a glitch came on, and watched the man's face as she phazed into a partial shadow before returning as herself. Out of reflex he jerked in shock, and she could momentarily read his confused thoughts. Whether he should be worried about void infection.

Was she a void creature?

Had she come to hurt them?

Even he wondered if she could be considered discharged or not.

"My apologies," Kelly said,"I seem to have trouble holding my corporeal form these days." She enjoyed watching the dumbstruck looks on their faces as they tried very hard to understand and wrap their heads around what she was saying. Kelly had always had a wicked little sense of humor. From the outside she knew a lot of people saw her as cold and hard and kind of distant, but her cold irony was one of her greatest weapons.

She liked subtly teasing people.

"I... th... we.." The Admiral began fumbling over his words, pausing and stuttering as he tried to find the right thing to say. The others around him did not look particularly envious of the position she had put him in. She raised an eyebrow as he stumbled but eventually, "This is all.... highly .... Irregular, Admiral I.... I don't know of the UNSC has a policy for..... For resurrection." She laughed at that watching as his eyes narrowed and his thought process grew that much more guarded, "And how do we know you aren't a manifestation of the void. We have had problems with that latel."

She nodded slowly in understanding, "that is what I would like to speak with the UNSC brass about."

He gave her a look, "I am not going to trust you in a room with some of the most important people on earth. I am sorry, Admiral but you.... If you are you.... You should understand."

Again she nodded slowly and simply smiled at the man who shuffled his feet awkwardly against the floor.

"No its alright I understand, a teleconference will be just fine. And as for your question, the UNSC does not have any protocols for the resurrection of an officer. But think about it this way, if an officer dies on the table and is resuscitated they still remain an officer."

He nodded through rather guardedly, "Yes, perhaps that is so, but it is likely if he died o on the table, he also sustained injuries that would lead to his medical discharge. And death is a pretty serious medical condition.

Kelly patted herself quite pointedly and looked up at the admiral with her eyebrow still raised, "You know for someone who is dead I am feeling rather well." She watched hsi face closely, and then saw him blanch white with confusion.

What would thai mean for the presidency?

Kelly had died merely fifteen seconds after her inauguration, and Hunt had taken over as he was her active VP. The VP can take over the presidency in the event that the president is ill, or otherwise indisposed, and must hand the presidency back when the president recovers. But how did resurrection and death factor into this? This was going to be a whole mess and it was he who was going to have to deal with the problem.

"Follow me.:"

Together, surrounded by military MPs and curious soldiers alike.

They made their way through the hallways in an ever growing group. Officers stopped in the hall to gape, a solider nearly fell over his mop and bucket. Some enlisted cadet actually managed to walk into a door frame as she made her way past. All around her she could hear whispering and muttering and speculation.

There were too many people for her to easily read minds now, but she could hear their thoughts as a distant background chatter.

They turned the corner to the war room and their entourage reluctantly fell off as they were lead through the secure doors and into a conference room . Kelly took her seat watching as the admiral paced up and down the front of the room near the control panels. A group of intelligence analysts sitting at their computers turned to observe their boss, and stopped as their eyes fell on Kelly. One woman let out an involuntary squeak.

The man muttered to himself then paused and sighed, ''If now isn't the time than no time is the time." She watched him walk over to the leftmost control panel, flipping up the plastic cover on a large green button." She had only ever used that button on one occasion, during the invasion of earth, and she was surprised to find that she warranted such worry .

The green button would send a very urgent request for an immediate telemeeting with all of the big and important people, admirals of the UNSC, the presidential cabinet members, and the justices presiding over the global court.

Even president Hunt would be there.

She felt herself glitch again with a little more force and malice than she had originally intended, but no one saw and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Things were going to be alright. What that mad had done to her, what he had helped Kazna do to her was unforgivable, and there was no greater desire in her than to murder him permanently like he had helped do to her, but she refused to stoop to his level. No matter how bad she wanted to, she would not become him.

She opened her eyes slowly and looked up just in time to se the admiral mash the green button.

He was sweating profusely now, and she could sea the beads of sweat beginning to appear on his forehead.

He had no idea weather this was the right call or not, but there were simply no other options.

Kelly waited quietly as the first holograms began to appear arrayed around the table like something from the Jedi council, a reference she only knew because Adam had pestered her into watching the first few movies. She was pretty sure he had pestered everyone on Arcadia into watching the first few movies.

She remained unnoticed for a time as other admiral's, politicians and world leaders demanded to know why they had been called.

And then.

Hunt appeared. He was looking more frazzled than she remembered, older and more worn down. He had no hair, so it was hard to tell if he had gone gray, but his eyes were gaunt and sunken back into his head. He looked far older than she remembered and much more car worn.

A part of that brought her great pleasure.

Another part of her was convinced it wasn't nearly enough.

It was actually hunt that noticed her first, his eyes turning around the circle, all holograms on his side, and froze as his eyes fell on her. She could practically feel his brain bluescreen and crash despite him being thousands of miles away. When his mouth opened she half expected to hear the emergency alert noise that comes up on tv, loud and obnoxious and completely nonsense.

But that wouldn't really change much from his normal speech now would it.

His sudden strange reaction caused a cascade effect as others turned to see what he was looking at, their eyes falling on her and realization slowly beginning to dawn on their face.

The global court justice looked as if she was about to have an aneurysm, either that or she was incredibly constipated.

The secretary of defense went white and then green.

The Secretary of Homeland Security just started to laugh, and she couldn't tell weather he was actually amused or if his brain simply didn't know how to interpret whatever strong emotion he was feeling at the time.

"Tala.... Kelly...."

They turned to look at admiral carson looks of accustomed in their eyes demanding an explanation.

He simply lifted his hands in confusion, "I didn't know what else to do.

"SHe could be void infected." Hunt pointed out, and just at that moment, Kelly's body chose to glitch, causing a wave of shock and exclamations of surprise around the room.

She sighed and stood, "It's me, all be it a little worse for ware."

"Worse for ware!" That was justice Yun, "You were dead kelly! How are we supposed to deal with this? Your body is buried at the Arlington historical site!"

That was a weird thought all told. She had never considered that her bones were lying somewhere in the ground, not a few hundred miles away She could go visit her own grave if she wanted though she found the thought rather depressing.

She tilted her head at the group of them, "It is true, I am no longer in possession of my physical body."

Dumbstruck silence.

"What the hell is that even supposed to mean?" Hunt said, and she took a very long deep breath trying to calm her desire to punch him in the mouth.

She folded her hands in front of her, "My security clearance number, if you are worried and wish to identify me is 22 0 Charlie Delta 4 5 Tango Sierra, and as for that story it is simple. I did die when Kazna stabbed me, that much is true. At the time, and unknown to me, she had kidnapped my anima and locked me in..... " She shivered at the very thought, trying to block out the memory, "she kept me for a year floating in a black well of nothingness, the sort of afterlife all of us dread, during that time I lost all sense of who I was . For a while she used me against Admiral Vir, until Lord Celex, who had also been captured by Kazna came to my aid, together we escaped and returned to Arcadia, where we have been recovering since. There is more to the story but that is the gist of it."

Hunt jabbed a finger at her, "So you admit that you have been corrupted by the void."

She sighed and shook her head, "No, it didn't take."

"How can we trust you."

She glowered at hunt slowly beginning to lose her temper, "I am no longer bound by physical laws, hunt. I can survive the vacuum of space, gunshots, the crushing weight of the ocean. I can change my form into any creature man or beast that I like, and yet I have chosen to come here and politely speak with you like a rational being." She locked eyes with him hoping to bore cold hardness into his soul, "Even though I could easily have gotten revenge against those that have wronged me, I have chosen not to because that is not a world I believe in. But you have managed to fuck earth so royally that they are holding the coronation tomorrow."

Silence around the room and maybe a few smiles.

"Considering all of that I have returned, and I hope to start where I left off."

Dead silence around the room.

Awkward paper shuffling.

An admiral turned to the Justice, "Is there precident for this?"

"For resurrection, no, not since Christ as far as I am aware, and he was only one for three days."

"Well settle in everyone, we are going to have to figure something out."