Jayesh was a young warlock who had only been under Vanguard command a few months. He had become adept at fighting Fallen and Cabal, alien races that often harassed the Last City on Earth.
But he had nightmares after his first encounter with the Hive. And then he met the Taken.
He'd read about them, of course. He knew their history, or as much as humans knew of it. He'd watched videos during training, and listened to the stories told by older Guardians. He'd studied the Books of Sorrow late at night, and lost sleep afterward.
But when he and his fireteam, Madrid the hunter and Kari the warlock, faced off against an unexpectedly large number of Taken in a cave, Jayesh nearly lost his mind.
Maybe it was the holes in reality - black gaps where rocks or walls had been, with strange sounds coming from them.
Maybe it was the way the Taken moved - a sort of sliding, wobbling motion, as if this reality was underwater.
Maybe it was the way some of them split into two, or four.
Or maybe it was when a smaller one rushed him while he was shooting a bigger one. He turned around and it was in his face, a black figure outlined in traces of burning white. For an instant, Jayesh stared into its face, and it was a human. A human with black, dead eyes, a sagging jaw, and a spot of brightness on its forehead that was not light.
He raised one hand and blasted it with a burst of fire. The Taken human screamed, but not like a human or an animal - like machinery screeching in a factory. Its form curled and vanished into the air like water down a drain.
Jayesh realized he was making the same sound, and shut his mouth.
"Jayesh! You okay?" Kari asked over the helmet radio. She was a few feet away, crouched behind a stalagmite, firing her pulse rifle in noisy bursts.
"Fine!" he exclaimed, checking his HUD for the next target.
His ghost, Phoenix, didn't make a sound, but Jayesh felt his silent concern.
There was no time during a firefight to think about what he'd seen, but now he was afraid to look closely at the other Taken, for fear of what he might see, even the ones that plainly had once been Cabal or Vex. He fired until his rifle was empty, switched to his sidearm, and used that.
The nightmare only got worse. They came upon a black portal flickering in the next cavern. As they approached, it opened, and a wispy, hellish thing like a vast spider crawled out.
The fight was dire, with all three of them growing tired and low on ammo. Jayesh took a slash across the chest from one of the thing's claws. He was glad of the excuse to take refuge behind a boulder, rest for a moment, and allow Phoenix to heal him. The fight and the horrors that surrounded him pounded in his brain like a fever. He tried not to think at all, but the fear remained, compacting into layers that he'd have to deal with once this was over.
"Use your fusion rifle," Phoenix suggested in his head. "The monster is using void energy, and that rifle has a void mod."
It was Jayesh's newest weapon, and he'd been itching for an excuse to use it. He hauled it in off his shoulder strap, swung out from behind the rock, and aimed at the monster.
The first shot nearly knocked him over. The laser slashed through the Taken monster's form like a knife through cheese. It screeched. Jayesh steadied himself and fired again.
The whole creature fizzled apart into crackling purple fragments. Each fragment disappeared into the air as if being sucked down a hole.
Kari and Madrid whooped and cheered. Jayesh sat there, gripping his rifle, waiting for some other horror to appear. He was still there, still aiming at the middle of the room, when his companions found him.
"Hey," Madrid said. "Relax, Jay. It's over. When that thing died, it took its buddies with it."
Jayesh slowly stood up, clinging to his rifle. He wanted to respond, to laugh with his team, congratulate them on winning the fight. But the words stayed locked behind his tongue. The magnitude of the otherworldly terror he had experienced filled him, blotting out all other emotion.
He followed his friends out of the cave, watching over his shoulder, expecting some new creature to emerge from the darkness as they passed. The gaps in reality had vanished, and the cave was just a cave - rock, flowstone, and an uneven floor carved by water.
They emerged in sunlight on the surface of terraformed Io. All around were yellow rock formations and geysers of hot water. Kari and Madrid were laughing at the size of the bounty they'd earn for clearing out so many Taken. Their laughter seemed as distant as Pluto to Jayesh.
Their ships were docked four miles away, far from any alien interference. It would be a long, long walk.
Jayesh ducked into the shadow of a mushroom-shaped rock and huddled on the ground, knees drawn to his chest, clinging to his rifle like a safety blanket. His ragged breathing picked up on the radio.
Kari and Madrid turned to see their companion wasn't with them. "Uh oh," Kari said in a low voice. She and Madrid returned. Kari sat down beside Jayesh and wrapped her arms around him. She jerked her head at Madrid, who settled himself on the other side of Jayesh with a grunt.
"What's wrong, Jay?" Kari asked.
Jayesh stared straight ahead, trying to control his breathing and the pounding of his heart. "One was human."
"What was?" Madrid said.
"A Taken," Jayesh said. "It got too close, and I looked at it. It was human."
Kari and Madrid exchanged glances over Jayesh's head.
"I suppose it could happen," Madrid said. "They can't take Guardians, because of our Light. But if an average human crossed them ... it's possible."
Kari squeezed Jayesh a little, which didn't do much, because they both wore layers of enviro-suits and battle armor. "It's all right, now, Jay. We made it."
Jayesh didn't respond.
"Phoenix," Kari said, "can you help him?"
The star-shaped robot phased into being in a cloud of blue particles. He wore a shiny red and yellow shell, his blue eye blinking from the center. He swooped around Jayesh, sweeping him with a healing beam. Then he moved himself back and forth in midair, like a human shaking their head. "He's not hurt, but he's beyond terrified. It's actually clouding his Light."
Jayesh still clung to his rifle. Madrid reached over and gently lifted it away. "You don't need this now, kid. It's all right."
Jayesh clung to the rifle for a moment, glanced at Madrid, then let go. Madrid laid it on the ground beside him.
"Look," Madrid said, "this is battlefield shock. Happens to the best of us sometimes. You meet a new enemy you were unprepared for. Not like anything can prepare you for the Taken. When I first saw one, I thought my helmet had bugs crawling on it."
"Yeah," Kari agreed. "I first saw them back on Venus. We knew they were a problem, but nobody tells you about the way they ... wiggle."
"They took a human," Jayesh repeated, as if he hadn't heard a word they'd said. "I knew they took the alien races. They're under the Darkness. But humans have the Light. I thought - I thought -"
"Guardians have the Light," Madrid corrected. "It's why we can fight the Taken and the Vex without being wiped from existence. Regular humans aren't so lucky."
Jayesh rested his head on his knees. "I want to go home."
"Can you walk?" Kari said. "I'll give you a ride on my sparrow."
Jayesh nodded. He slowly climbed to his feet, where he snatched up his rifle and slung it across his back. His ghost phased into him in a swirl of energy.
Kari summoned her sparrow, and Madrid summoned his. Jayesh didn't have one yet, and he didn't know if he could have driven properly right now, anyway.
As he and Kari soared along a few feet from the ground on the motorcycle-like hovercraft, he thought to Phoenix, "What did you mean? That my Light was clouded?"
"Your fear," Phoenix replied. "It's actually blotting out your connection to the Traveler. Take courage, Jay. Your team destroyed a Taken ascendant."
"But they took a human," Jayesh thought, shivers running through him. "How many other humans have been dragged into the Darkness to have the soul stripped out of them?"
"Does it matter?" Phoenix said. "There's nothing you can do for them. They may have been Taken a thousand years ago. The Darkness respawns the same minions it's been using for centuries."
"But ..." Jayesh hesitated. "That could have been me. Or Kari. Or Madrid." That was the crux of his fear - the horror that had been devouring him.
"No, it couldn't," Phoenix insisted. "The Light prevents them from taking Guardians. They can harm your body, Jay, but they can't touch your spark."
This reassured Jayesh a little. Still, when the team reached their ships and agreed to meet back at the Last City on Earth, Jayesh could barely make himself speak. He climbed into his ship, let his ghost take command of launch and trajectory calculations, and curled into the fetal position in the pilot's seat.
Even with the ship's jump drive, it took eight hours to travel between Jupiter and Earth. Jayesh slept most of the way, but every few hours, he awoke screaming from nightmares about Hive and Taken combined.
Phoenix watched the controls and his Guardian, deeply concerned. Jayesh had always been tender-hearted to the point where he was a liability as a soldier. Phoenix had hoped that he'd toughen up after spending time in the field. While Jayesh had matured rapidly in some ways, something like this came along and broadsided them both.
Jayesh's nightmares filtered through the link he shared with his ghost. This one was about being seized and dragged into the Darkness. Phoenix shuddered.
Sure enough, a moment later, Jayesh shrieked and awoke, clawing at his flight harness. He remembered where he was and flopped in the seat, panting. "Phoenix, can't you make these dreams stop?"
"I'm sorry, no," Phoenix said sorrowfully. "I won't tamper with your brain."
Jayesh clutched his chest, feeling for his own pulse. "How do other Guardians cope with fighting Taken?"
"Experience, I guess," Phoenix said. "Once you get used to them, they're just one more enemy, and you don't think about it much."
Jayesh curled in the seat again and stared at the instrument panel. As long as he focused on something else, the horror faded a little. Thinking about the course Phoenix had plotted and trying to figure out a better one occupied him.
He made sure it occupied him the rest of the way home.
Back at Vanguard HQ, Jayesh went straight to Ikora, the Warlock Commander.
She was already talking to two other Warlocks, details of a mission, probably. Jayesh hung back, his helmet under one arm. It was a warm afternoon on top of the wall, and beneath his layers of gear, he was already sweltering. Sweat beaded on his brown skin. Phoenix floated beside him, enjoying his freedom in the security of the new tower.
The other warlocks departed, and Ikora beckoned Jayesh forward. "Hello, Guardian. How did things go on Io?"
He tried to give a full report. But his brain kept hiccuping whenever he tried to explain about fighting the Taken.
"They were holed up in a cave in the southeastern quadrant. We thought we could sweep through and eliminate those ... those globe things. The blights. But there were more Taken than we thought, and ... and ..." Once more he stared into that human face, the empty eyes of darkness. "One was a Taken human. It got too close and I saw it. I killed it, but ... It was a Taken human, commander!"
Ikora watched his face, her shrewd eyes missing nothing. "The Taken have seized a few humans in the past. It saddens me that you had to meet one on your first encounter."
Jayesh shuddered and tried to continue his report. "So we cleared that room and moved on to the next. There was a ..." He thought of the black, shimmering portal and his mind went blank. He backtracked. "I mean, we emptied the first room. Then we moved on, and we saw ..." He halted. The words just wouldn't form.
Ikora said gently, "Why don't you let your ghost finish for you?"
Jayesh nodded and waved Phoenix forward. Phoenix gave a superb report, adding details about the portal and Taken ascendant that Jayesh had completely missed. He hadn't realized the final monster had been Taken Hive.
"Thank you, ghost," Ikora said. "Guardian, your team banished a great evil from our world today. Thank you." She reached into a box beneath the nearest table and produced a dice-shaped object called an engram. It was matter coded into data, and from the inscription on top, contained a new weapon.
As Jayesh took it, Ikora added, "I want you to visit the medical wing and talk to a doctor. You've had trauma, and a doctor will teach you how to recover. Understand?"
"Yes, Commander," Jayesh said meekly. She understood what was wrong with him, and that was worth any amount of strictness. Trauma. Thank the Traveler there was a term for it.
Carrying his engram, Jayesh decided to visit the Cryptarch and have it decoded before heading down to the medical floor. It would only take a few minutes, and he wanted to see what he'd been awarded.
The Tower was fairly crowded that day, and Jayesh had to pick his way between other Guardians and clusters of regular people. As he was standing in an alcove, waiting for three fire teams to pass by, all talking loudly about Crucible scores, Phoenix made a soft, questioning beep.
Jayesh looked around. His ghost was gazing into the alcove. It was shady and dark inside, and at first glance, was stacked only with crates of salvage recently recovered from the Fallen. But as Jayesh stepped further in, a ghost's eye turned toward them, blinking.
A figure lay sprawled on top of the crates, slouched against the stone wall. By the massive plate armor, it was a Titan, the warrior class of the Guardians. His ghost floated beside him, but the Titan made no sign that he had noticed Jayesh. Asleep? Drunk?
"Excuse me?" Jayesh ventured. "Are you all right, sir?"
The Titan stirred and lifted his head. He was an Exo - the robot race that had once been human. His eyes glowed green. "What do you want?"
"I'm, uh ..." Jayesh licked dry lips. "I was just walking by, and ... do you need help?"
"Yeah, I need help," the Exo muttered. "Help out of the Vanguard."
Jayesh glanced at Phoenix. This didn't sound like something he should get involved in, not with the recent media smear campaign still a fresh sore in his mind. "I guess I'll leave you alone, then."
"Wait." The Exo sat up, his armor rasping as the plates scraped together. "That was rude. I'm Shane-5, and this is Valor." He nodded at his ghost and extended a hand.
Jayesh shook the warm metal hand. "I'm Jayesh, and this is Phoenix."
The ghosts nodded politely at each other.
"Jayesh," Shane said. "Are you the Guardian who the Cult of Osiris tried to murder?"
Jayesh nodded. "They did, actually. But my ghost is awesome." He held up a fist and Phoenix bumped it.
Shane's mechanical face flexed in a smile. "You're tough, for a warlock. I like that. Want to know why I'm hiding back here?"
Jayesh looked around the shady alcove. "It's cooler?"
"Kid, I'm wearing full plate," Shane said. "Temperature doesn't matter. No, I'm back here because they just rebooted me, and I'm talking like two months ago. Fortunately, I've got a great girl who's been helping me through it."
"Right," Jayesh said, wondering where this was going. When an Exo's brain was rebooted, it erased huge chunks of memory. It was why they changed the number attached to their name, because they had to start over as a new person.
"I just got back from a mission to Mars," Shane went on, lowering his voice. "Clovis Bray. Rasputin. Yeah, I learned some stuff. You get sent to Mars, they won't want you talking. I've got orders here for another reboot. And this time, there ain't nothing wrong with my brain. They want me to forget. And I don't want to forget. Cindra's a great woman, and I was hoping to pop the question soon. So here I sit."
Jayesh stood there, gazing at the doomed Exo, utterly out of his depth. His own fear of the Taken suddenly seemed so insignificant. Sure, the horror still crept through him whenever he remembered their flowing, sliding movement. But Shane was facing an even greater horror - that of political manipulation and silencing.
"Who gave you the order?" Jayesh asked. "Not Zavala?"
"Executor Hideo," Shane said. "I've been on his personal Crucible team since my last reboot. Had to retrain. Once we Guardians pledge to a faction, Zavala gets very hands-off. He's head of the Consensus, you know, and he tries to let each faction manage their affairs as they see fit."
"But doesn't he know about Mars?" Jayesh said. "I mean, even if it's top secret, he's the High Commander. He ought to know."
Shane shrugged his armored shoulders. "He was there. He knows. But he also hated everything that went on. If he tells me to get a reboot, I've really got no choice. Hideo, maybe I can put it off and he'll forget."
"Want to go on patrol with me?" Jayesh blurted. "I mean ... we'd be gone a few days. Maybe a week or two. Head out into the EDZ, get some distance."
Shane gazed at him for a moment. "I like the way you think. But ... no offense, but you're a warlock. And your gear ..." He gestured to Jayesh's grimy robe.
Jayesh grinned. "You know why warlocks never need new boots? Because they're used to being carried."
Shane threw back his head and laughed. "You're all right, kid. Let's meet at Cayde's shop in an hour, see what patrols he has for us."
"Make it two," Jayesh said. "I just got back from Io and I've got some errands."
"Gotcha."
Jayesh headed for the Cryptarch's tent, still lugging his engram.
Phoenix muttered, "You're going on patrol with a Titan you just met?"
"He needs help," Jayesh muttered. "It was all I could think of. I don't have any clout with politicians around here. I don't even know what New Monarchy does."
The Cryptarch studied Jayesh's engram for a moment, then placed it in a machine and tapped a few buttons on a tablet with a cracked screen. The blue dice-shape fizzled and reshaped itself into a pulse rifle.
Pleased, Jayesh accepted his new rifle and inspected its magazine and action as he descended the stairs toward the medical floor. "This is a quality rifle, Phoenix. Can't wait to use it."
"On patrol, you'll probably have to," Phoenix said dryly.
Jayesh checked in at the medical desk. The Awoken behind the desk told him to wait while a doctor was assigned to him. Jayesh passed a happy fifteen minutes taking his new rifle apart and reassembling it.
The doctor who called for him was a human woman in a blue lab coat. She led him to an exam room and directed him to a chair. "Hello, Guardian Jayesh. What seems to be the problem?"
The horror came creeping back. The blood drained from Jayesh's face, leaving him cold. "I fought Taken for the first time," he forced himself to say. "And they ... and I ... I just can't ... they had a human."
The doctor nodded sympathetically. "I took one look at the Taken, resigned as a combat Guardian and became a doctor." She held out a hand, summoning her ghost. It wore a light blue shell that matched her lab coat.
Phoenix phased into being at once, twirling his shell in an aggressive way. "Don't even think of altering his brain functions."
"Relax," the other ghost replied in a feminine voice. "Passive only. If your Guardian has been harmed, we need to know."
"Phoenix," Jayesh warned. "Don't."
Undeterred, Phoenix stood his ground beside his Guardian and watched the medical ghost's every move. Jayesh gazed into its scan beam when instructed and tried to answer basic questions about his encounter. But his mind kept hitting blank spots. Already he was forgetting.
"Post-traumatic stress," the doctor said, viewing her ghost's findings on her tablet. "I'm seeing dead patches in your prefrontal cortex and elevated cortisol levels. If I could recommend you take a vacation, I would. You need quiet, peaceful stimulation to lower the cortisol levels and let your brain recover."
"A patrol?" Jayesh said.
The doctor shrugged. "Maybe. As long as you stay out of combat. It looks like you've been under stress for a lot longer than a day or two." She gazed at him searchingly.
Jayesh nodded. "Did you read what the media was saying about me meeting the Traveler?"
Understanding flashed across the doctor's face. "Oh. You're that Guardian Jayesh."
He didn't want to discuss it and raised both hands. "Just saying. Yeah, I've had stress."
The doctor looked at her ghost, communicating rapidly and silently, the way Guardians did. After a moment, they faced Jayesh again. "Rest," the doctor said. "Make it a long, slow patrol. You, ghost, make sure he keeps it low key. I know brain tampering is taboo, but you'll be trying to rebuild his brain here in the next few years, if this stress keeps up."
"Yes ma'am," Phoenix said, sounding subdued.
"I'll try," Jayesh said. He couldn't think of anything less relaxing than tromping through the wilds with a strange Titan, but he was already committed.
The doctor dismissed him. Jayesh trudged back upstairs for a quick shower before heading out of the Tower. His mind was tired and blank.
Feeling fresher afterward, but still tired, Jayesh hiked into the hanger, where Cayde's tiny office was. Shane was already there, his bulky armor making two of the lithe, slim Hunter Vanguard.
"Hey, it's Jayesh," Cayde said. "Sorry about the cult thing. You busted them before I did."
"Thanks," Jayesh said faintly. "Got any patrols that won't see much action? I've got doctor's orders to rest."
The two Exos peered at him. "Ah," Cayde said. "The human reboot, eh? Well, let me see." He pulled out a box and rifled through a set of folders. Finally he extracted a sheet of paper and held it up. "I've been saving this one. Requires special gear that I don't give out to just any Guardians. You might be out there a while. Pack lots of food and a couple of tents." He handed Jayesh the report.
Mission location: Mirror Lake, 150 miles south of the Last City
Objective: To discover which species of freshwater fish tastes the best when grilled over hot coals
Equipment: fishing tackle
Jayesh bit his lips to keep from laughing aloud. He passed it to Shane. "Is this for real?"
"Sure it's real," Cayde said. "Made it up myself, didn't I?" He disappeared into his tiny shack, reappearing a moment later with a tackle box and two telescoping rods.
"Shane, here, told me about his next reboot," Cayde said in a low voice, passing Jayesh the gear. "It's malicious, is what it is. While you're gone, I'll talk politics with Zavala. See if we can't sort out Hideo."
"Do you know what happened on Mars?" Jayesh asked.
Cayde chuckled. "Oh, the Vanguard knows all about it. Zavala's been tearing his hair out. Figuratively speaking."
It was Shane's turn to try not to laugh.
"I'll keep in touch," Cayde went on. "Let you know when it's safe to come back. Meanwhile, get some rest. You've died a lot, recently, and too many deaths do take their toll."
Shane gave Jayesh a questioning look. Jayesh shook his head and hauled the armload of 'patrol' gear toward his ship.
It took a while to gather the materials they needed. Shane hunted for tents while Jayesh rounded up food supplies, mostly so he'd get to eat the things he liked. He and Phoenix chatted as they worked, keeping things light and fun. It kept Jayesh's mind away from the dark things that crawled in his memory.