Sierra-B122

Remember how in the long night of solace you're flying in the longsword and Jorge is with you for a bit?

Not sure about you guys but I did loads of barrel rolling and shit and for some reason I imagine Jorge has some kind of motion sickness?

“After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned.”

It must have been going through his head as Thel charged the Jiralhanae that were keeping him and the marines captive.

It must have been going through his head as he waited for Thel to confirm the truth about the Halo rings.

It must have been going through his head as he looked at Thel with all that sympathy.

“Make me proud, do what’s right. This had been his Aunt’s instruction on the day of his enlistment, her small but strong fingers reach up to cup his nineteen-year-old chin. Become the man I know you can be. And Avery [Johnson] had tried. He’d left Earth ready to fight for her and those like her – innocents whose lives the UNSC had convinced him were threatened by men inimical but otherwise identical to him. Killers. Innies. The enemy. But where was the pride? And what had he become? … ‘I’m sorry,’ Avery croaked, wishing he aunt were alive to hear it. Then his mind collapse under the multiplicative weight of loss and guilt and rage.” (Harvest, pp 45).

The opening of Contact Harvest has Johnson questioning where he lies in this war, questioning all the death he caused and all the civilians caught in the crossfire between the Insurrection and the UNSC. His Aunt’s final words to him ring in his ears consistently.

Even though he saw the beginning of the Human-Covenant, he never got to see the end of the war waged within humanity. And he would only go on to see more and more innocents die because of another war caused by conflicting ideologies.

So what if the words “Make me proud, do what’s right,” are whispering in his ears as he stares down the Scarab canon he has aimed at the Sangheili who captured both himself and Commander Keyes? Aimed at a killer. A Covie. The enemy. Sure, this Sangheili just saved him, but that doesn’t undo every single murder committed by this alien. 

Johnson could end this high-priority target right there, eliminate one of humanity’s greatest threats.

Or he could give him a second chance. 

“Do what’s right,” he thinks and choses mercy.

And as Thel confronts Tartarus, Johnson holds off on firing at the Chieftain because he realizes that just as he had been convinced that the Innies were all monsters, Thel must have been convinced that the humans were too by the Covenant leaders. He realizes that Thel needed closure, clarification, just like he did.

And as the enormity of the War and all the lies, that multiplicative weight of loss and guilt and rage crashes down on Thel, I am certain that Johnson looks and sees himself in the Sangheili. And maybe, just maybe, Johnson is running those same words in his head:

“Make my mercy mean something - Make me proud.” “Show me that sparing you was the right thing to do - Do what’s right.” “Become the man I know you can be - whatever kept me from pulling that trigger, show me that now.”

And then we see Thel offer the exact same hand of peace, the same new start, to Tartarus that Johnson offered to him.

Thel’s pursuit of peace started with Johnson giving him a second chance.

And I swear it’s all because Johnson wanted to make his aunt proud.

Is it a one time choice?

The only other ai changing their look I remember was I think BB presented himself with a gift bow as a happy birthday thing to parangosky? Or did I imagine this lol? Its been ages