Just Another Target

"Relax. After all, it's just another target, isn't it?"
Michael glanced down the rows of empty chairs towards his squadmate. Connor sat there - awkwardly it might be said - looking back towards Michael with a mixture of amusement and genuine inquisition plastered across his face. Michael raised one of his eyebrows slightly, to which Connor grinned. 
"I know, I know - it's definitely not another one of those missions," Connor said, a statement which did little to rebuff Michael's bemusement. "However, we can't treat it as something different, can we? I mean, we know these guys, these kids. We trained with them! Hell, I got my ass beaten by their demolitions expert!"
Connor paused, as if waiting for Michael to say something. He didn't, his eyes firmly locked downwards, staring at the metal floor. Seeing that as the go-ahead, Connor continued.
"My point is, we cannot just act as if this is normal. Because it isn't! It is far from normal. I mean, do you think Nathan or Dana-"
Michael jerked upwards. He locked his head towards Connor, his eyes glaring in anger.
"Don't you ever compare Dana to what those kids did. They are not the same. Dana was nothing like them, and they will never be anything like her." His sudden outburst stunned Connor. He'd talked to Michael about them before. About Nathan, Dana, Victoria, Eric. Their deaths had been the topic of discussion multiple times after the war. So why now such a visceral reaction?
Of course, Michael knew that Connor understood why he erupted so suddenly. 
Dana.
Michael still remembered the day she died. On Paris IV, in Mimir. Shepherding civilians to safety, blazing away at advancing Grunts with her assault rifle and a Magnum. Michael rushing from cover to cover, collapsed building to collapsed building, trying to reach her, to support her. Watching helplessly as a Phantom swooped in to the nearby square, offloading yet more troops in another attempt to force back the UNSC. His roaring and desperate scream to her as the Phantom's plasma cannon swivelled towards her. His anger and fury as the plasma hit her armour, scorching the titanium plating and throwing her back. 
He knew it was painful, to learn someone you had known for so long had died. He knew it was, when he found out about TORPEDO, and the deaths of hundreds of his comrades, his friends. But Dana was the first person he had loved that had died. He broke down there and then - he would've died with her had Nathan and Connor not dragged him, kicking and screaming, away from her body, as her armour turned everything around her into a funeral pyre as the reactor ignited.
But, in a strange way, Michael knew what Connor meant. What would Dana have said about the current situation? If she was still here, what would she have said about hunting fellow Spartans? Especially Spartans they'd trained with and mentored. Christ, Michael and Connor had hosted these kids when they were on Concord the first time - and by all accounts they were a solid team. If Dana had met them, would she be as ready as Michael was to go after them if they went AWOL?
"No, Connor, you're right." Michael admitted. That admission startled Connor even more than Michael's outburst had. 
"We can't pretend it's normal. We can't pretend it's just another mission, that we don't know these kids. We do. And we've got to deal with that."
Michael leaned back in his chair. His MJOLNIR armour made it only slightly less uncomfortable than leaning forward, but just by wearing the suit of titanium and silicon, he knew he wouldn't be able to sit properly in any UNSC dropship.
"But we're not the one who's having more of an issue than this," he said. "Ellie and Sikorski may be fine, but Yvette sure isn't. Especially considering it is her old team that we're after. So we need to act as the anchor for her, considering we lead this fireteam. Got that?"
Connor nodded, a glum look on his face. "Yeah, I got it," he said. "I'm just not looking forward to it."
Michael sighed, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah," he admitted. "Neither am I."