If anyone knows me around these parts, you’ll know I’m firmly anti-bring the dead back to life. Leave Johnson dead. Leave Cortana dead. Finito. Others, however, may remember an alternative way to bring back Cortana via mental manipulation by the Gravemind. As established in this thread, I’ve determined that the Gravemind possess the ability to create realistic aberrations across large channels of space and time. It did so to mock the Librarian during her final hours on Earth before the Halo Array rushed through the planet wiping out all sentient life. Also theoriezed, I believe that the Gravemind’s influence could now be affecting Chief due to the possibility of him receiving the geas of the Didact. We know the Librarian AI was planning to give the Didact the Janus Key to help humanity, but that plan soured due to the Didact’s continued madness at the hands of the Gravemind. She very well may have given the Chief the tainted geas of her husband that has left him susceptible to the Gravemind. Read the first thread to get the bigger picture.
So if that could possibly bring back Cortana, I figure why not do that to bring back Johnson, Captain Keyes and others? Earlier today I remembered that it is entirely possible that the Flood hivemend could have Captain Keyes’ memories and consciousness. Chief may have gotten Keyes’ neural implant, but that is no guarantee that he saved Keyes from eternal torment from the Flood. Memories taken by the Flood stay with the Flood forever it seems, after all, the Gravemind used the memories of an unknown alien race to drag Cortana further into rampancy.
Another thing is that even if the Gravemind or the Flood didn’t have Keyes’ memories, it doesn’t need them. In Silentium, the ancient human Lord of Admrials and Gamelpar, a “devolved” human from Halo: Primordium, were used by the Gravemind to mock the Librarian, as mentioned above. The thing is, the Lord of Admirals geas resides in 343 Guilty Spark, who has also regained his original conscious as the “devolved” human named Chakas, so the Flood never got him. Same with Gamelpar, he died before the Flood could get to him.
So that leaves the possibility for literally anyone close to Chief to be used a mental tool to trick him, mock him or lead him astray. They may not be the ideal reunions we’d want, but I think it could lead to very interesting narratives as Chief encounters lost friends and comrades if he is slipping into madness. Locke is going after him for a reason and he has to be found. Like the Arbiter said, their survival is buried in his past, now his past has come back to haunt him.
