The Weapon: Difference between revisions

Six months after the defeat of [[Cortana]], the Master Chief was revived and returned for the Weapon, whom he was surprised to see was still functioning. Not knowing how or why her deletion was averted, she was recovered and accompanied him across Zeta Halo, which was now controlled by the [[Banished]] following the crippling of the ''Infinity''. Recovering the framework that the Weapon had used to lock down Cortana, the two witnessed echoes of Cortana's life scattered across Zeta Halo's systems.{{Ref/Reuse|Foundation}}

However, in order to help the Master Chief access the [[Command Spire]], the Weapon was forced to interface with four Forerunner [[beam emitter|beacons]] in order to override a lockdown on the Command Spire. Throughout her hacking, the Weapon was observed by another presence and it was only on the fourth beacon that she realized that it was actually [[the Harbinger]]. The Weapon realized that it was a trap with the Harbinger trying to break the deadlock on starting the Spires by combining the Weapon's routines with [[117649 Despondent Pyre|the Monitor's]]. The Master Chief suggested stopping and creating a stalemate, but the Weapon warned him that the Harbinger is close and that she would eventually find a way. With no other choice, the Master Chief allowed the Weapon to proceed, but he discreetly activated a deletion protocol for the AI just in case. When nothing happened to her, the Weapon suggested that she was just being paranoid and the Master Chief dodged her question about what he was saying while activating her deletion protocol.{{Ref/Level|Hi|[[The Sequence]]}}

Later, while interfacing with Halo in the [[Nexus (location)|Nexus]], the Weapon was trapped in the system by the Harbinger. The Weapon begged the Master Chief for help, but, worrying that the AI had been compromised, he went through the authentication to manually delete the Weapon instead. However, the Weapon managed to break free of the Harbinger's clutches and override the deletion protocol. The Weapon was livid that the Master Chief was willing to turn on her so quickly rather than trust in her to break free herself while he was furious that she had stopped him and put them all at risk. The Weapon confirmed that the Reformation has begun, but reveals that she had managed to steal Pyre's [[encephalon]] from the Harbinger, reminding the Master Chief that she was an infiltration program. The Master Chief continued to argue that she broke protocol, causing the Weapon to demand what was wrong with him as she was only trying to help them and it was worth the risk before activating a [[gravity lift]].{{Ref/Level|Hi|[[Nexus]]}}

The Weapon continued to accompany the Master Chief, but her tone shifted to outright dejection and sarcasm towards the Chief, even telling [[Fernando Esparza|the pilot]] what the Master Chief had done to her. The Master Chief and the Weapon made their way to the top of the Command Spire, defeating [[Adjutant Resolution]] once again. Once three attacking [[Banished Phantom]]s had been destroyed, the Weapon interfaced with the Command Spire, continuing to treat the Master Chief with sarcasm and dismay over his earlier actions. The Weapon, lacking her usual enthusiasm, shut down the Spire network and successfully stopped the Reformation before demanding answers from him, pointing out that she had waited for him for six months, done everything that he'd asked and while she was supposed to be deleted, he was the reason that she was still here and he could never have accomplished all that he had done on Halo without her. The Weapon demanded to know why he can't trust her like she had trusted him, and he brought up Cortana, but the Weapon told the Master Chief that Cortana was dead and all that was left of her were echoes that will be gone too sooner or later. ''Echo 216'' arrived with the news that all of the Spires were shutting down and the Weapon informed the two men that while the Master Chief was ready for pickup, she was staying in the Command Spire. The argument was interrupted by [[Jega 'Rdomnai]] attacking the pilot in the cockpit and flying off with him after the Master Chief couldn't get into the Pelican to rescue him. The Weapon warned the Master Chief that the pilot didn't stand a chance against a Spartan Killer, and he ordered the Weapon to track them and open [[teleportation grid|a portal]] to somewhere close by. The Weapon argued against this, warning that they could die trying as it was hard to lock down the coordinates, but he had her do it anyways and they departed through a portal in pursuit of 'Rdomnai and the pilot.{{Ref/Level|Id=The Command Spire|Hi|[[The Command Spire]]}}

===Facing the truth===

The Weapon teleported to the two to the [[Repository (location)|Repository]] under the Banished base, but they passed through a data cluster in the process, causing the Chief to witness more of Cortana's memories. Hacking into a terminal, the Weapon played a challenging message from Escharum to the Chief and retrieved the coordinates of the Banished base from the message. As they continued, the two witnessed Cortana destroying [[Sydney]] as an example to [[Terrence Hood|Lord Hood]] when the UNSC refused to surrender and her having [[Leonidas]] destroy [[Laconia Station]] due to the threat that the [[SPARTAN-IV program|Spartan IVs]] there posed to her. After witnessing Cortana destroying [[Doisac]] as an example to Atriox, the Weapon finally realized that she was actually a copy of Cortana herself, which the Master Chief confirmed, explaining that it was the only way to infiltrate the installation's systems and lock down Cortana. The Master Chief explained that the Weapon had all of the same systems and routines as Cortana, but Halsey had scrubbed any information that could have compromised the AI. "You're her. If we'd never met," stated the Master Chief. Horrified by Cortana's actions and the idea that she could end up the same way, the Weapon restored her deletion protocols and asked the Master Chief to delete her, but to promise to rescue the pilot as the Master Chief was all that he had left. The Master Chief instead downloaded the Weapon back into his armor so that they could do it together, admitting that while he didn't trust her, he wanted to.{{Ref/Reuse|Repository}}

As ''Echo 216'' approached the Silent Auditorium, the Weapon realized that it was the location where she had locked down Cortana and where Cortana had died. Fighting their way through the structure, the two witnessed Cortana's memories of her facing off with [[Atriox]] after she had been locked down, although, unlike the previous memories that the two had seen, these memories seemed to be more purposeful, as if Cortana had purposefully left them to be found. From these memories, they learned that Atriox had pressured Cortana to surrender control of the ring to him and that the Weapon's deletion had been prevented by Cortana herself after Cortana realized that she had unwittingly set in motion a chain of events, which would put all life in the [[Milky Way]] in [[Xalanyn|mortal danger]]. Cortana knew that the Weapon would be John's sole option for stopping the plans of the Banished, as she would no longer be able to. After a final confrontation with Atriox, Cortana sacrificed herself to destroy the part of the ring containing the Silent Auditorium, apparently killing the Banished leader.{{Ref/Reuse|Silent Auditorium}}

After finally reaching the Harbinger, the Weapon monitored the transmissions to another location and attempted to deduce their contents while helping the Master Chief to stop the Harbinger. As time went on, the Weapon was unexpectedly aided in her work by an unknown entity within the Silent Auditorium's systems. When the Harbinger died, she sent off a final transmission to an unknown location, one that was sent too fast for the Weapon to deduce more than the fact that it was to something old. Afterwards, the two witnessed a final message recorded for the Master Chief by Cortana, in which she apologized for her actions and hoped that the two may learn from her mistakes and become better for them. Cortana also relayed to the Master Chief that she felt that the Weapon had a lot of potential.{{Ref/Reuse|Silent Auditorium}}

File:HINF-Friendship.jpg|The Weapon with John-117 on Installation 07.

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===Screenshots===

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File:HINF ItWontBeMe.png|The Weapon conversing with John-117.

File:HINF Weapon Framework.png|The Weapon absorbing the framework and index fragments.

File:FallGuys-TheWeaponpattern.png|The Weapon's outfit as a pattern in ''Fall Guys''.

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