Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny, Bungie, or anything of the kind.
This is a one-shot of Cayde reflecting on the former Hunter Vanguard, Andal Brask, a good friend, and how he bet on the Vanguard Dare to honor him, and some other things.
For background info, check your Grimoire on Cayde; Taniks, the Scarred; if you have it, Ghost Fragment: Fallen; and Ghost Fragment: Rasputin.
Note: There are no sources confirming what the Vanguard Dare actually is other than the way the Hunter Vanguard is chosen after the current one dies. Because of this, I will be making up a story about it.
Cayde-6 stood at the table in the Vanguard Headquarters at the Tower. The Hunter he had called in walked his way. This Hunter, a human male, was one of his favorites, for various reasons. One of said reasons being that this Hunter annoyed Zavala and Ikora just as easily as he did. The Hunter walked up to him.
"Hey, Blaze! How's Fireteam Inferno doing?" Cayde asks the Hunter.
"Pretty good, Cayde. We just took down some of Oryx's lieutenants over on the Dreadnaught." The Hunter, whose nickname is Blaze, says.
"That's cool. How many?" Cayde asks.
"Well, I killed just about eight, Ace killed like, seven, and Shannon took out a whopping ten!" Blaze says. "So that makes a total of twenty-five."
"You still haven't figured out a nickname for her, yet?" Cayde asks, knowing very well why.
Blaze laughs. "Warlocks don't exactly do nicknames. But, if she wants one, she'll tell me. Until then, it'll have to wait." He says.
"Speaking of Shannon, can I see the ring?" Cayde asks.
"You got it. Flame. Show 'em." Blaze says.
Blaze's ghost materializes and floats over to Cayde. The ghost has a shell with a flame-orange color, earning it the name 'Flame.' "Here you go." Flame says in a male voice. A ring materializes in front of it and floats in midair.
Cayde's ghost, Scope, materializes and floats over to the ring and scans it. He speaks, also in a male voice. "It's a Golden Age relic." Ikora becomes interested at hearing this. "Made by French jewelers about five hundred years ago. Restored to its former glory by the Cryptarchs and… infused with the Traveller's light? How is that possible?" Scope says.
"Simply enough, after I got the ring back from Master Rahool, I went over to see the Speaker and I asked him to work his magic." Blaze explains. "The ring can charge up with light in a non-darkness zone, so if she dies in a darkness zone, there is enough light for one ressurrection by her ghost." Flame takes the ring back.
"That's smart. I'm sure that Shannon will love the ring, Ryan." Ikora says with a smile, referring to Blaze by his real name, Ryan.
"Thank you, Ikora." Blaze says after turning to face her. He turns back to face Cayde. "Told ya. No nicknames."
Cayde shrugs. "When are you planning on proposing?" He questions.
"When the time feels right." Blaze says. "Probably after Oryx is dead."
"I'm still gonna be your best man, right?" Cayde asks.
Blaze chuckles. "Yes, Cayde. You and Ace are going to be my best men, but she has to say 'yes' first." He says.
"Don't worry about that. I've seen the two of you together. The entire Tower has! You two were made for each other!" Cayde says.
"Why don't you repeat that so that the entire Tower can hear you? Including Shannon!" Blaze says with a laugh. He notices that Zavala's mouth angles up ever so slightly. He takes this as a personal victory. "Anyway, why'd you call me over here?"
"Ah! Right! I called you here for a reason." Cayde says. He grabs a chip from on top of his map. He hands it to Blaze. "The Cabal Skyburners on the Dreadnaught have been in contact with the Fallen House of Kings. We want Inferno to check it out."
"You don't think that there could be Cabal on Earth, do you." Blaze inquires.
"We think it's a possibility, but we want you and your fireteam to find out. Start your investigation on Earth." Commander Zavala says. "And Blaze, I'm sure she'll say yes." He uses Ryan's nickname, seeing it more as a title, considering his accomplishment.
"You got it, Commander." Blaze says. He turns to leave. "And thanks."
"Hey." Cayde says to Blaze in a softer voice. "Take me with you."
"I can hear you, Cayde." Zavala says.
"Since when do I care?" Cayde replies.
"Since you lost the Vanguard Dare." Ikora says.
"I'm just gonna go." Blaze says, awkwardly, and he runs out of there.
"Oh! You did not just bring up the Dare!" Cayde says.
"Here we go." Cayde could hear Lord Shaxx say this to Eris Morn.
"It does get annoying at times." Eris responds.
"Shut up, you two!" Cayde says to the two. He turns right back to Ikora. "The only reason I even bet on the Dare was because Andal was a good friend of mine."
"Cayde. Taniks is dead. You no longer need to bring up Andal. He is avenged." Zavala says.
"Then why does it feel like there's still someone out there? Someone who needs to pay?" Cayde says. At this, the two other Vanguards are silent. "That's what I thought." Cayde breaks the silence after about half a minute. "I'm going to my quarters." He walks out of the room and to his quarters.
Once he arrives, Cayde plops down on his bed. "Ugh. Stupid Zavala. Stupid Ikora. Stupid Taniks. Stupid Dare." He mumbles.
Scope materializes over by Cayde's desk. "Is this really only about the Dare, Cayde?" He asks.
Cayde stays silent for a few moments. "Stupid House Exile Baroness." He mutters.
"You're still upset over that? She tried to kill you! You killed her back!" Scope says.
"I know, Scope, but still…" Cayde says. "I'll never know if she actually wanted to kill me, or if she just wanted me to put her out of her misery."
"Maybe it was because you cheered when the knight went down." Scope suggests. "There's no way she could've known for sure that you were cheering for her."
Cayde thinks on this and sighs. "You're right."
Scope does a somersault in the air, and Cayde knew that if he had a mouth, Scope would be smiling seeing as Cayde didn't admit that Scope was right very often.
The Exo Hunter does something else that he doesn't do often: he takes off his cloak. Cayde wards off thoughts about that one night on the moon. He starts thinking about his felled friend, and predecessor as Hunter Vanguard, Andal Brask.
"You know, Scope, Andal and I had quite the history." Cayde says.
"I know, Cayde." Scope explains. "I was there."
Cayde ignores his floating companion and continues. "There was this one time that he accused me of being Rasputin. How'd that go?" He asks himself. He raises his finger in a small celebration. "Aha! That's right! He said–"
"You know, Cayde, I've been examining the evidence, and personally I've come to think it's you. You're Rasputin, legendary Warmind, defender of Earth. And I wish you'd remember that, so you could reclaim your full power and save us all." Cayde hears Andal's voice say. He turns to Scope, who has brought up a video recording of the moment.
"Told ya I was there." Scope says. Cayde rolls his eyes.
"Well, Andal, you might be onto something there, but if I'm honest with you I think coordinating our defense throughout the solar system sounds exhausting, so I'd best leave it to you." Cayde hears his own voice say in a joking tone, all the while, Zavala is working in the background.
"Zavala was no different then than he is now, was he? Didn't care for a Hunter's banter at all." Cayde says after telling Scope to stop playback, chuckling to himself.
"Not really. He's still dutiful as ever." Scope says.
"Of course, Andal finished that joke when he died and I lost the Dare." Cayde says. "Now I take his place, doing what he once did."
"Well, it's a pretty good joke on his part." Scope says.
"To you, maybe." Cayde says. "What was the Dare, anyway? Ah! It was something like, last to kill twenty Fallen Captains loses."
"Thirty." Scope corrects.
"Right, right." Cayde says.
About an hour passes by before Scope starts beeping rapidly.
"Cayde…" Scope starts with an anxious tone.
"What is it, Scope?" Cayde asks, lazily.
"Cayde!" Cayde fell off of his bed after being surprised by Zavala's voice coming from Scope. "Get down here now!"
"Why? What's so important?" Cayde asks with a harsh tone.
"Ryan just got back with Crux, and they look very stressed out." Ikora says, referring to Blaze and Ace by their real names.
Cayde gets up immediately and grabs his cloak as he runs out the door before sprinting to the Hall of Guardians. He finds Blaze and his Titan friend, Ace, standing in front of the table. He slows down when he's a few feet away from them and walks in front of them. "Alright, what is it, Blaze?" Cayde asks.
The human Hunter opens his mouth to speak, but the words don't come out.
"It's Shannon." Ace speaks up. "The Cabal have captured her."
Oh, shit. It's gonna be one of those days. Cayde thinks to himself.
That's it, guys! This is going to lead into my next story, so don't count me out yet. I haven't come up with a name, yet, but just look around. Until then, review, favorite, and follow!