The Calm
Night was falling by the time Cayde-6 made it to the EDZ. The rendezvous point was deep in the woods, far enough away from any Fallen encampments or Red Legion outposts that Cayde figured he could transmat in without worrying about any kind of surprises waiting for him.
Boy, was I wrong, he thought, standing amidst the trees with no Titan in sight.
Cayde pinged the Tower. "Yes, Cayde?" Came the exhausted baritone of his friend.
"Zavala, there's nobody here. You sure this guy is worth it?"
"If he's not there, he will have had a good reason to abandon his post. Search the area. He's one of our best."
"He better be. I'm on the clock, you know."
"Your side project can wait, Cayde. I have a bad feeling about those reports. We need that Guardian in the fight. He's the only one I trust to go up there."
"Alright, alright. I'll find your lost Titan." Cayde hung up and stared into the trees, and the pitch black darkness amidst them. "'One of the best,' he says… Didn't stop him from getting lost, did it?" He sighed heavily and began to walk.
A few clicks into the woods, he smelled it. The sharp tang of ozone. "Aw, hell," Cayde muttered, pulling his Ace from its holster. "I hate these guys." He pulled the hammer back and pressed on, his head on a swivel.
It wasn't long before he spotted them: the enormous, pulsating orbs of darkness emerging from the ground, floating amid the treetops, corrupting the woods with Taken. The further he went, the more dense the Taken orbs became-save for what looked like a path carved through them. Dark purple burns scarred the ground and shrubs along the way-void light. "Been busy, huh, friend?" Cayde murmured, following the path.
With any Taken apparently burned away by light, the only sound was the gentle creaking of tree branches in the breeze and Cayde's own footsteps. Until, finally, he heard it: the gentle boom of a far off explosion. Cayde made a beeline for the noise, sprinting through the trees until he came to the edge of a cliff. It was there he spotted the Taken in the valley below, their flickering black forms eerie, even at a distance.
Twang. Cayde turned towards the sound, just as an explosion of purple light burned away a tightly-clumped pack of Taken Psions far below. The other Taken scattered, searching for their attacker, to no avail.
Twang. Boom. Another shower of void light, more Taken sent back to the void. Cayde stalked the cliff's edge until he spotted the source of the explosions.
Twang. The Guardian's enormous black and silver bow shuddered as the drawstring snapped forward. The arrow moved so fast, even Cayde's eyes couldn't track it before it found its mark in the head of a Taken Centurion. The resulting explosion took out another clump of Taken, leaving only stragglers left of what was once a full-sized warparty.
"You want in on this?" The Titan said, his voice low and calm as he nocked another arrow.
"No, please, it's your show. Anyways, you look like you have it handled."
"Hmm." Unsure whether the Titan was responding in the affirmative or not, Cayde waited until the next twang-boom to continue.
"I don't think I've ever seen a Titan fight like you. Usually there's less "waiting for the perfect shot from afar," and more "punch until there's nothing left to punch" when it comes to Titans."
The Guardian lowered his bow and turned to Cayde. "It's a common misconception that bows are easy to use," he said quietly. "That all it takes is a little patience and a sharp eye. But anyone who believes that is wrong." He grasped the drawstring and pulled it to his shoulder. "It requires strength to draw. More so to hold the arrow back. Real strength isn't just about overpowering your enemy, it's about knowing when to hold, and when to fire." He relaxed his arm and let the string ease back.
"That's probably true," Cayde shot back. "Then again, I've always found there to be only one surefire truth when it comes to combat."
"Which is?"
"You can always use more grenades."
The Guardian chuckled. "Whatever you say, Cayde. What are you doing here?"
"Ah, right. The heart of the matter. You see, Zavala wanted me to-"
"Wait."
"Wait?"
"Shuttup." The Guardian darted forwards, hunkering down behind a tree.
"Did you just tell the Hunter Vanguard to shut up?"
"Get down, you idiot!" The Guardian hissed. "Don't you hear that?"
Cayde cocked his head, listening. A low whine was coming from somewhere in the woods, slowly getting louder. "I hear something… What is that?"
The Guardian drew another arrow. "Axiom bolt."
"Aw, hell," Cayde said, and suddenly the whine was more like a howl. The glowing projectile hurtled through the trees and-KABOOM-detonated between the two lightbearers, sending them flying off the cliff's edge.
They rolled and tumbled down the cliffside, smacking into just about every rock and shrub on the way down, until the incline evened out enough to regain their footing. "Okay," Cayde said, brushing dirt and twigs off his lucky pants angrily, "Let's NOT do that again."
"Bad guys," the other Guardian said, and pointed. Cayde looked; a small army of Taken twitched, flickered, and shimmered their creepy way up the hill towards them.
"So… Fight now, talk later?"
The Titan balled up his fist, channeling void light into a grenade. "Yeah, I think that's probably best." He threw the grenade and loosed an arrow in the same breath. The explosions rocked the earth beneath their feet, but it didn't stop the two Guardians from running headlong towards the fight.
The battle was long and messy. Flashes of gold and purple lit up the valley as they burned the Taken away with their light, like divine fireworks bursting through the dark.
The moon was full and high in the sky by the time every last Taken had been destroyed. Breathless and weary, the warriors surveyed the scarred landscape they'd left in their wake.
"Damn," Cayde said. "That was a good fight. You really do know how to use that thing."
"The Calm? Yeah. I've had her for a while."
"Good name. You name her that?"
"Nah. It's inscribed on the grip." He showed Cayde the inscription. "I like to think she belonged to another Guardian before I got her. Now I'm just carrying their legacy."
"Carrying their legacy. Yeah, I like that." Cayde held up his cannon. "This here's Ace. I'd never let anybody have her. Except, maybe, this one Guardian..."
"Let me guess."
"The Hero of the-"
"The Red War, yeah. The Slayer of Oryx, the Champion of the Vault of Glass-the one making the rest of look bad."
"Ah, you know them!"
"I know of them. I suppose if anybody's gonna take up your legacy, they'd be a good one to do it."
"My thoughts exactly."
"So, can we get back to why you're here, Cayde?"
"Oh, yeah," Cayde said, emptying his clip and reaching for another. "Moon's haunted."
"Moon's what?"
"Moon's haunted," Cayde repeated matter-of-factly, loading in another clip. Click. "Been getting weird reports from my scouts. Odd transmissions getting picked up, tremors beneath the lunar surface. Lots of Hive activity. Super spooky. Probably gonna be a great time for you."
"A great time, huh? If it's so good, why aren't you going?"
"Well that's because-crap!" Cayde exclaimed. "Because I gotta go. Ghost, bring the ship around!"
"Where you off to in such a hurry?"
"Well, you see, I'm going to prison."
"Can't say I'm surprised."
Cayde turned to the Guardian in shock. "Was that a joke? Titans are telling jokes now? I'll be damned."
"Don't worry. You're still the king when it comes to that."
"Well, thank you for recognizing greatness. Anyways, for your information, it's the Prison of Elders where I'm going. And I don't plan to stay very long. Just got some unfinished business to attend to. Some prison riots to quell. It'll be a real party."
Cayde's ship roared into the sky above them, coming to a stop just above the trees. "This is my ride." Cayde turned to the Guardian, hands on his hips. "What's your name again? Amadeus, right?"
"No," the Guardian said. "Amadis. Amadeus was a musician on Earth, long before the Golden Age."
"Don't you start trying to educate me on things! If I wanted to learn about weird old musicians from Old Earth, I'd talk to Rasputin." Cayde extended his hand. "But it was good meeting you. And not dying with you."
"You too," Amadis replied, and shook the Hunter's hand.
"Alright! Toodles!" Cayde-6 turned to leave.
"Cayde?"
He stopped and turned around again. "Yeah?"
"Be careful out there."
"Where's the fun in that?" Cayde flashed finger guns at Amadis, just as the transmat beam pulled him away.
Amadis watched the ship fly into the night sky until it was gone, ignoring the sudden fear in his heart. Every light was precious; that was something he knew too well. There was always a chance that the next time your Ghost pulled you back from the brink, it would be the last time.
He shook the thoughts from his head, and turned his gaze towards the moon, glowing silver in the black sky. It was time to look ahead.